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of  the 

University  of  California 

Los  Angeles 


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This  book  is  DUE  o 


on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


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5VJHI 


IAN  s 

JAN  2  1  1959 


THE    G-HEVILLE   MEMO i us. 


A  JOURNAL  OF  THE  REIGNS 


OF 


KING  GEORGE  IV. 


AND 


KING   WILLIAM  IV. 


BY   THE   LATE 

CHARLES   C.   F.   GREVILLE,  ESQ., 

CLERK  OF  THE  COUNCIL  TO  THOSE  SOVEREIGNS. 


EDITED   BY 

HENRY  REEVE, 

REGISTRAR    OP    THE    PRIVT   COCNCIL. 


COMPLETE   IN   TWO    VOLUMES. 
VOL.    II. 


NEW  YORK: 
D.   APPLETON   AND   COMPANY, 

548   AND   551    BROADWAY. 
1875. 


5  3  G 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  II. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Whig  and  Tory  Meetings  on  Reform—  Resolution  to  carry  the  Bill—  Holland—  Radical  Jones 
—  Reform  Bill  thrown  out  by  the  Lords  —  Dorsetshire  Election  —  Division  among  the 
Tories—  Bishop  Phillpotts—  Prospects  of  Reform  —  Its  Dangers—  Riots  at  Bristol—  The 
Cholera  at  Sunderland  —  An  Attempt  at  a  Compromise  on  Reform  —  Lord  Wharncliffo 
negotiates  with  the  Ministers  —  Negotiation  with  Mr.  Barnes  —  Proclamation  against  the 
Unions  —  Barbarism  of  Sunderland  —  Disappointment  of  Lord  Wharnclift'e  —  Bristol  and 
Lyons  —  Commercial  Negotiations  with  France  —  Poulett  Thomson  —  Lord  Wharncliffe's 
Proposal  to  Lord  Grey  —  Disapproved  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington  —  Moderation  of  Lord 
John  Russell—  The  Appeal  of  Drax  vs.  Grosvenor  —  The  Second  Reform  Bill  —  Violence 
of  Lord  Durham  —  More  Body-snatchers  —  Duke  of  Richmond  and  Sir  Henry  Parnell  — 
Panshanger  —  Creation  of  Peers  —  Division  of  Opinion  —  Negotiation  to  avoid  the  Creation 
of  Peers—  Lord  Wharncliffe's  Interview  with  the  King—  Opposition  of  the  Duke  of 
Wellington—  The  Waverers  resolve  to  ssparate  from  the  Duke  .  .  .  PAGE  9 

CHAPTER  XVH. 


eournes  ews  on  te  overnment—  acauay  at  oan  ouse  —  euctance  o 
the  Government  to  create  Peers  —  Duke  of  Wellington  intractable  —  Peel's  Despondency 
—  Lord  Grey  on  the  Measures  of  Conciliation  —  Lord  Wharncliffe  sees  the  King  —  Pros- 
pects of  the  Waverers  —  Conversations  with  Lord  Melbourne  and  Lord  Palmerston  — 
Duke  of  Richmond  on  the  Creation  of  Peers  —  Interview  of  Lord  Grey  with  the  Waver- 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

Debate  in  the  House  of  Lords—  Lord  Harrowby's  Position—  Hopes  of  a  Compromise—  Lord 
Melbourne's  View  —  Disturbances  caused  by  the  Cholera  —  The  Disfranchisement  Clause 

—  The  Number  "56"  —  Peers  contemplated—  The  King's  Hesitation—  "  The  Hunch- 
back'1 —  Critical  Position  of  the  Waverers  —  Bill  carried  by  Nine  in  the  Lords  —  The  Cholera 
in  Paris  —  Moderate  Speech  of  Lord  Grey  —  End  of  the  Secession  —  Conciliatory  Over- 
tures —  Negotiations  carried  on  at  Newmarket  —  Hostile  Division  in  the  Lords  —  Lonl 
Wharncliffe's  Account  of  his  Failure  —  Lord  Grey  resigns  —  The  Duke  of  Wellingtou 
attempts  to  form  a  Ministry—  Peel  declines  —  Hostility  of  the  Court  to  the  Whigs  —  A 
Change  of  Scene  —  The  Duke  fails  —  History  of  the  Crisis  —  Lord  Grey  returns  to  Office 

—  The  King's  Excitement  —  The  King  writes  to  the  Opposition  Peers  —  Defeat  and  Dis- 
grace of  the  Tories  —  Conversation  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington—  Louis  XVIII.—  Madame 
du  Cfiyla  —  Weakness  of  the  King  —  Mortality  among  Great  Men  —  Petition  against  Lord 
W.  Bentinck's  Prohibition  of  Suttee  heard  by  the  Privy  Council  —  O'Connell  and  the 
Cholera—  Irish  Tithe  Bill—  Irish  Difficulties—  Mr.  Stanley—  Concluding  Debates  of  the 
Parliament  —  Quarrel    between    Brougham    and    Sugden  —  Holland    and    Belgium  — 
Brougham's  Revenge  and  Apology  —  Dinner  at  Holland  House  —  Anecdotes  of  Johnson 

—  Death  of  Mr.  Greville's  Father  —  Madame  de  Flahaut's  Account  of  the  Princess 
Charlotte  —  Prince  Augustus  of  Prussia  —  Captain  Hess—  Hostilities  in  Holland  and  in 


iv  CONTENTS   OF  VOLUME  II. 

Portugal— The  Duchesse  de  Berri— Conversation  with  Lord  Melbourne  on  the  State  of 
the  Government * PAGE  75 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Foreign  Difficulties—  Conduct  of  Peel  on  the  Resignation  of  Lord  Grey—Manners  Button 
proposed  as  Tory  Premier— Coolness  between  Peel  and  the  Duke— Embargo  on  Dutch 
Ships — Death  of  Lord  Tenterden — Denman  made  Lord  Chief-Justice — Sketcli  of  Hol- 
land House — The  Speakership — Home  and  Campbell  Attorney-  and  Solicitor-General — 
The  Court  at  Brighton— Lord  Howe  and  the  Queen— Elections  under  the  Reform  Act 
— Mr.  Gully — Petworth — Lord  Egreinont — Attempt  to  reinstate  Lord  Howe — Namik 
Pasha — Lord  Lyndhurst's  Version  of  what  occurred  on  the  Resignation  of  Lord  Gre" 
— Lord  Denbigh  appointed  Chamberlain  to  the  Queen— Brougham's  Privy  Counc 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Appointment  of  Sir  Stratford  Canning  to  the  Russian  Embassy— Cause  of  the  Refusal — 
Slavery  in  the  West  Indies — The  Reformed  Parliament— Duke  of  Wellington's  View 
of -Affairs — The  Coercion  Bill— The  Privy  Council  Bill — Lord  Durham  made  an  Earl — 
Mr.  Stanley  Secretary  for  the  Colonies — The  Russians  go  to  the  Assistance  of  the  Porte 
— Lord  Goderich  has  the  Privy  Seal,  an  Earldom,  and  the  Garter— Embarrassments  of 
the  Government — The  Appeal  of  Drax  vs.  Grosvenor  at  the  Privy  Council — Hobhouse 
defeated  in  Westminster— Bill  for  Negro  Emancipation— The  Russians  on  the  Bos- 
porus— Mr.  Littleton  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland — Respect  shown  to  the  Duke  of 
Wellington — Moral  of  a  "  Book  on  the  Desby  " — The  Oaks — A  Betting  Incident — Ascot 
— Government  beaten  in  the  Lords  on  Foreign  Policv — Vote  of  Confidence  in  the 
Commons — Drax  vs.  Grosvenor  decided — 'Lord  Eldon's  Last  Judgment — His  Character 
— Duke  of  Wellington  as  Leader  of  Opposition — West  India  Affairs— Irish  Church  Bill 
—Appropriation  Clause— A  Fancy  Bazaar— The  King  writes  to  the  Bishops — Local 
Court  Bill— Mirabeau p-  14(5 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

Dinner  at  Greenwich — Monk  Lewis — The  King's  Letter — Lord  Althorp  ;s  Finance — Salutes 
to  the  Royal  Family — Death  of  Lord  Dover — His  Character — Lyndhurst  and  Brougham 
on  the  Local  Courts  Bill — Charles  Napier  captures  the  Miguelite  Fleet — The  Irish 
Church  Bill — The  Duke  of  Wellington  and  the  Bonapartes — Blount's  Preaching — Sir 
Robert  Peel  on  Political  Unions — Mr.  George  Villiers  appointed  to  Madrid — Duke  of 
Richmond — Suspension  Clause  in  Irish  Church  Bill — Apprenticeship  Clause  in  West 
India  Bill — State  of  House  of  Commons — Lucien  and  Joseph  Bonaparte — Lord  Plunket 
— Denis  Lemarchant — Brougham  and  Sugden — Princess  Lieven — Anecdotes  of  the 
Emperor  Nicholas — Affairs  of  Portugal — Dom  Miguel  at  Strathfleldsaye — Prorogation 
of  Parliament— Results  of  the  Reform  Bill p.  170 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

The  Speaker  a  Knight  of  the  Bath — Lord  Welleslcy,  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland— M. 
Thiers  in  England — Prince  Esterhazy's  Opinion  of  the  State  of  England — Queen  of  Port- 
ugal at  Windsor — The  Duke  of  Leuchtenberg — Macaulay  and  Sydney  Smith — Brough- 
am's Anecdotes  of  Queen  Caroline — Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council — Sir 
Stratford  Canning  and  M.  Dedel — Sydney  Smith  and  the  "Siege  of  Saragossa'' — 
Edward  Irving — The  Unknown  Tongues — Tribute  to  Lord  Eldon — W.  J.  Fox — Lord 
Tavistock  on  the  Prospects  of  his  Party — Moore  at  the  State  Paper  Office — Russia  and 
England — Belvoir  Castle — The  Duke  of  Wellington  at  Belvoir — Visit  to  Mrs.  Ark- 
wright — Sir  Thomas  Lawrence  and  the  Misses  Siddons — A  Murder  at  Runton — Sandon 
— Lord  and  Lady  Harrowby — Burghley — Railroads  talked  of — Gloomy  Tory  Prognos- 
tications— State  of  Spain— Parliament  opens — Quarrel  of  Shiel  and  Lord  Althorp — 
Unpopularity  of  Lord  Palmerston — Mrs.  Somerville — O'Connell's  Attack  on  Baron 
Smith— Lord  Althorp's  Budget— The  Pension  List — Lord  Althorp  as  Leader  of  the 
House — Sir  R.  Peel's  Position  in  the  House — Meeting  of  Supporters  of  Government — 
Mr.  Villiers  on  the  State  of  Spain— Predicament  of  Home,  the  Attornev-General  p.  195 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME   II. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Bpain — Russia  and  Turkey — Sir  R.  Peel's  Pictures — Peel  and  Stanley — Lord  Brougham's 
Judicial  Changes — Lord  Brougham's  Defense — Admission  of  Dissenters  to  the  Univer- 
sities— Lord  Denman's  Peerage — Growing  Ascendency  of  Peel — An  Apology  for  Lord 
Brougham— Personal  Reflections— Crime  in  Dorsetshire — Spain  and  Portugal— Pro- 
cession of  the  Trades1  Unions — Lady  Hertford's  Funeral — Petition  of  the  London 
University  for  a  Charter — Repeal  of  the  Union — Excitement  of  the  King— Brougham 
and  Eldon  at  the  Privy  Council— Duke  of  Wellington's  Aversion  to  the  Whigs—  Lord 
Brougham  and  Lord  Wynford — Ffite  at  Petworth — Lord  Brougham's  Conduct  on  the 
Pluralities  Bill — Crisis  in  the  Cabinet — Prince  Lieven  recalled— Stanley,  Graham,  and 
the  Duke  of  Richmond,  resign  on  the  Irish  Church  Bill— History  of  the  Crisis — Ward's 
Motion  defeated  by  moving  the  Previous  Question — Affairs  of  Portugal — Effects  of  the 
late  Change — Oxford  Commemoration — Peel's  Declaration — Festival  in  Westminster 
Abbey — Don  Carlos  on  his  Way  to  Spain — Stanley's  "Thimble-rig"  Speech — Resigna- 
tion of  Lord  Grey — Mr.  Greville's  Account  of  the  Causes  of  his  Retirement — The 
Government  reconstituted  by  Lord  Melbourne — Lord  Duncannon  Secretary  of 
State PAGE  228 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Taylor's  "  Philip  van  Artevelde  " — Goodwood — Earl  Bathnrst's  Death — Death  of  Mrs. 
Arbuthnot— Overtures  to  O'Connell— Irish  Tithe  Bill — Theodore  Hook's  Improvisation 
— Lord  Westmeath's  Case  in  the  Privy  Council — First  Council  of  Lord  Melbourne's 
Government  and  Prorogation — Brougham's  Vagaries — Lord  Durham's  Exclusion — 
The  Edinburgh  Dinner — Windsor  and  Meiningen — Spencer  Perceval — Lord  Grey's 
Retirement — The  Westmeath  Case  again — The  Queen's  Return — Melbourne  and  Tom 
Young— Holland  House— Reflections— Conversation  on  the  Poets — Miscellaneous  Chat 
— Lord  Melbourne's  Literary  Attainments — Lord  Holland's  Anecdotes  of  Great  Orators 
— Execution  of  Charles  I.— Lord  Melbourne's  Opinion  of  Henry  VIII. — The  Times  at- 
tacks Lord  Brougham — His  Tour  In  Scotland — His  Unpopularity — Cowper's  Secret — 
Canning  on  Reform — Lord  Melbourne  on  Palmerston  and  Brougham— Canning  and 
Brougham  in  1827 — Senior— Lord  Melbourne  and  the  Benthamites — His  Theology- 
Spanish  Eloquence — The  Harley  Papers — The  Turf— Death  of  Lord  Spencer — The 
Wcsttncath  Case  heard  —  Law  Appointments— Bickersteth— Louis  Philippe's  Po- 
sition    .  r.  2ii7 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

Fall  of  Lord  Melbourne's  Government — History  and  Causes  of  this  Event — An  Intrigue — 
Effect  of  the  Coup  at  Holland  House — The  Change  of  Government — The  Two  Camps — 
The  King's  Address  to  the  New  Ministers — The  Duke's  Account  of  the  Transaction— 
And  Lord  Lyndhurst's— Difficult  Position  of  the  Tories— Their  Policy— The  Duke  in 
all  the  Offices — Negotiation  with  Mr.  Barnes — Power  of  the  Times — Another  Address 
of  the  King— Brougham  offers  to  be  Lord  Chief  Baron — Mr.  Barnes  dines  with  Lord 
Lyndhurst— Whig  View  of  the  Recent  Change— Liberal  Views  of  the  Tory  Ministers — 
The  King  resolved  to  support  them — Another  Account  of  the  Interview  between  tho 
Kintr  and  Lord  Melbourne — Lord  Stanley's  Position — Sydney  Smith's  Preaching  at 
St.  Paul's — Lord  Duncannon  and  Lord  Melbourne — Relations  of  the  Four  Seceders  to 
Peel— Young  Disraeli— Lord  Melbourne's  Speeches  at  Derby — Lord  John  Russell's 
Speech  at  Totness — The  Duke  of  Wellington's  Inconsistencies  and  Conduct  .  p.  292 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

Sir  It.  Peel  arrives— The  First  Council— The  King's  Address— Lord  Stanley  and  Sir. I. 
Graham  decline  to  join  the  Government— Lord  Wharncliffe  and  Sir  E.  Knatchbull  join 
— The  Ministers  sworn  in — Peel's  Address  to  his  Constituents — Dinner  at  the  Mansion 
House — Offer  to  Lord  Roden — Prospects  of  the  Elections— Stanley's  Want  of  Influence 
— Pozzo  di  Borgo's  Views — Russia  and  England — Nomination  of  Lord  Londonderry 
to  St.  Petersburg — Parliament  dissolved — State  of  the  Constituencies — A  Govcrnor- 
General  for  India — Sebastian!  and  St.  Aulairc — Anecdote  of  Princess  Mi-tternich— Tho 
City  Elections — Lord  Lyndhnrst's  View  of  the  Government — Violence  of  the  OI>IMM 
tion — Close  Contest  at  Rochester — Sidney  Herbert — Sir  John  Hobhouse's  Views-- 
Anecdotes—Connty  Elections — The  Queen  supposed  to  be  with  Child— Church  Reform 
—Dinner  of  Ministers— Story  of  La  Roneiere— Tho  King's  Crotchets  .  .  p.  819 


vj  CONTENTS   OF  VOLUME   II. 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

The  Speakership— Temporary  Houses  of  Parliament— Church  Reform— Dissenters'  Mar- 
riage Bill— Peel's  False  Position— Burke — Palmerston's  Talents  as  a  Man  of  Business 
and  Unpopularity — Sympathy  of  Continental  Courts  -with  the  Tories — Abercromby 
elected  Speaker— Defeat  of  the  Government — Tactics  of  the  Opposition— The  Speaker 
does  not  dine  with  Peel— Meeting  of  Stanley's  Friends — Debate  on  the  Address — Lord 
John  Russell  leads  the  Opposition— The  Stanley  Party— Second  Defeat  of  the  Govern- 
ment—Peel's Ability— The  Litchficld  House  Meeting— Debate  on  Lord  Londonderry's 
Appointment— His  Speech  in  the  Lords  and  Resignation— Sir  E.  Sugden  resigns  the 
Great  Seal  of  Ireland — Lady  Canterbury — Brougham  in  the  House  of  Lords — Peel  s 
Readiness  and  Courage — Lord  Canterbury  and  Stratford  Canning  proposed  for  Canada 
—Approaching  Fall  of  the  Peel  Government— Meetings  of  the  Opposition— Further 
Defeat— Sir  Robert  Peel's  own  View  of  the  State  of  Affairs— He  resigns.  PAGE  345 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

Lord  Grey  and  Sir  James  Graham  express  Conservative  Views— Opinions  of  Lord  Stanley 
— Lord  Grey  sees  the  King,  but  is  not  asked  to  resume  Office — Lord  Melbourne's  Sec- 
ond Administration — His  Moderation — A  Difficulty — Spring  Rice — A  Joyless  Victory- 
Exclusion  of  Brougham— The  New  Cabinet— Lord  John  Russell  defeated  in  Devon- 
shire— Lord  Alvanley  and  O'Connell — Duel  with  Morgan  O'Connell — Lord  Wellesley 
resigns  the  Lord  Stewardship — The  Eliot  Convention— Swift  vs.  Kelly — The  Kembles 
— London  University  Charter  discussed  at  the  Privy  Council — Corporation  Reform — 
Formation  of  the  Conservative  Party — The  King's  Habits — Secretaryship  of  Jamaica — 
Lord  Melbourne's  Tithe  Bill — The  Pope  rejects  the  Recommendation  of  the  British 
Government — Relations  with  Rome — Carlists  and  Christines  in  Spain — Walcheren — 
The  King's  Address  to  Sir  Charles  Grey — Stanley  and  Graham  cross  the  House — Fail- 
ure of  Stanley's  Tactics — Alava  and  the  Duke  of  Cumberland — A  Sinecure  Placeman — 
Lord  Glenelg  and  the  King — Concert  at  Stafford  House — The  King's  Aversion  to  his 
Ministers  and  to  the  Speaker — Decision  on  the  Secretaryship  of  Jamaica — Archbishop 
Whateley — Irish  Church  Bill — Payment  of  Catholic  Clergy — Peel  and  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell— Factious  Conduct  of  Tory  Peers— The  King's  Violence— Debate  on  the  Corpora- 
tion Bill p.  3s8 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Resistance  of  the  Lords — Duke  of  Richmond — Happiness — Struggle  between  Lords  and 
Commons — Peel  keeps  aloof— Inconsistency  of  the  Whigs  on  the  Irish  Church  Bill- 
Violent  Language  in  the  Lords — Lord  John  Russell  and  Peel  pass  the  Corporation 
Bill — Dissolution  of  the  Tory  Party  foreseen — Meeting-  of  Peers  to  consider  the  Amend- 
ments— King's  Speech  in  Council  on  the  Militia — Lord  Howick's  Bitterness  against  the 
Lords — Lord  Lyndburst's  Opinion  of  the  Corporation  Bill — The  King's  Language  on 
the  Regency — Talleyrand's  View  of  the  English  Alliance— Comparison  of  Burke  and 
Mackintosh — The  St.  Leger — Visit  of  Princess  Victoria  to  Burghley — O'Connell's  Prog- 
ress through  Scotland — Mackintosh's  Life.  ...  .  .p.  413 


CHAPTER   XXX. 

Emperor  Nicholas's  Speech  at  Warsaw— His  Respect  for  Opinion  in  England— Burdett  pro- 
poses the  Expulsion  of  O'Connell  from  Brookes's — Club  Law— George  Villiers  at  Madrid 
— Lord  Segrave  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Gloucestershire— Dispute  between  France  and 
America— Allen's  Account  of  Mackintosh  and  Melbourne— Prolongation  of  a  Patent — 
Should  Dr.  Arnold  be  made  a  Bishop  ?— Frederic  Elliot — O'Connell's  Mischievous  Influ- 
ence—Bretby— Chesterfield  MSS.— The  Portfolio— Lord  Cottenham  and  Lord  Langdale 
—Opening  of  Parliament— The  Judicial  Committee— Poulett  Thomson  at  the  Hoard 
of  1  rade— Mr.  Perceval's  Interviews  with  the  Ministers— Prospects  of  the  Tories- 
Lord  Stanley's  Relations  to  them— Holland  House  Anecdotes — Mischievous  Effects  of 
the  Division  on  his  Address— The  Youth  of  Macaulay— Brougham  and  Macaulay— 
Lord  William  Bentinck— Review  of  Sir  R  Peel's  Conduct— Dr.  Hampden's  Appoint- 
ment—The Orange  Lodges.  .  r  443 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME   II. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Moore  and  O'Connell  —  Defeat  of  the  Opposition  —  The  Carlow  Election—  Lord  Alvanley'a 
Speech  to  the  Tory  Peers  —  Norton  vs.  Lord  Melbourne  —  Catastrophe  after  Epsom  — 
Mendizabal  and  Queen  Christina  —  Lord  John  Russell's  Moderation  in  the  Ecclesiastical 
Commission  —  Theatricals  at  Bridgewater  House  —  Irish  Church  —  Ministerial  Difficulties 
—  Deplorable  State  of  Spain—  What  was  thought  of  Lord  Palmerston  in  1836—  Weak- 
ness of  Government  —  Lord  Lyndhurst's  Summary  of  the  Session  —  Balance  of  Parties  — 
Lady  Augusta  Kennedy's  Marriage  —  King's  Speech  to  Princess  Victoria  —  Revolution 
of  La  Granja—  Rudeness  of  the  King  to  Ministers—  Irritation  of  the  King  at  the  Duchess 
of  Kent  —  Scene  at  Windsor  on  the  King's  Birthday  —  Prince  Esterhazy's  View  of  the 
Affairs  of  Europe  —  Emperor  Nicholas  at  Vienna  —  A  Crisis  in  Trade  —  State  of  the  Court 
at  Vienna—  Due  de  Reichstadt.  ......  PAGE  406 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

Crisis  in  the  City—  The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  —  A  Journey  to  Paris  —  Lord  Lyndhnrst 
in  Paris  —  Princess  laeven  —  Parties  in  France  —  Berryer  —  The  Strasburg  Conspirators  — 
Rotten  State  of  France—  Presentation  at  the  Tuileries—  Ball  at  the  Tuilerles—  Bal 
Musard  —  Lord  Granville  —  The  Due  de  Broglie—  Position  of  the  Due  d'Orteans  —  Re- 
turn to  England  —  Conservative  Reaction  —  Shiel's  Tirade  against  Lord  Lyndhurst  — 
Lyndhurst  as  a  Tory  Leader—  Angry  Debate  on  Church  Rates  —  The  Government  on 
the  Brink  of  Resignation  —  Sir  R.  Peel's  Prospects  —  The  King  and  Lord  Aylmer  — 
Death  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  —  Ministerial  Compromise—  Westminster  Election  —  Majority 
of  the  Princess  Victoria  —  The  King's  Illness—  The  King's  Letter  to  the  Princess  — 
Preparations  for  the  Council  —  Sir  R.  Peel  on  the  Prospects  of  the  New  Reign  —  Prayers 
ordered  for  the  King's  Recovery  —  Affairs  of  Lord  Ponsonby  —  Death  of  King  William 
IV.  —  First  Council  of  Queen  Victoria  —  The  Queen  proclaimed  —  Character  of  William 
IV  .....  ...  P.  491 


A   JOUKNAL 

OF  THE 

REIGN  OF  KING  WILLIAM  THE  FOURTH. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Whig  and  Tory  Meetings  on  Reform — Resolution  to  carry  the  Bill— Holland — Radical  Jones 
—Reform  Bill  thrown  out  by  the  Lords— Dorsetshire  Election— Division  among  the 
Tories— Bishop  Phillpotts— Prospects  of  Reform— Its  Dangers— Riots  at  Bristol— The 
Cholera  at  Sunderland — An  Attempt  at  a  Compromise  on  Reform — Lord  Wharncliffe 
negotiates  with  the  Ministers— Negotiation  with  Mr.  Barnes — Proclamation  against  the 
Unions — Barbarism  of  Sunderland — Disappointment  of  Lord  Wharncliffe — Bristol  and 
Lyons— Commercial  Negotiations  with  France— Poulett  Thomson— Lord  Wharacliffe's 
Proposal  to  Lord  Grey — Disapproved  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington — Moderation  of  Lord 
John  Russell— The  Appeal  of  Drax  vs.  Grosvenor — The  Second  Reform  Bill — Violence 
of  Lord  Durham— More  Body-snatchers — Duke  of  Richmond  and  Sir  Henry  Parnell— 
Panshanger— Creation  of  Peers— Division  of  Opinion — Negotiation  to  avoid  the  Creation 
of  Peers— Lord  Wharacliffe's  Interview  with  the  King— Opposition  of  the  Duke  of 
Wellington— The  Waverers  resolve  to  separate  from  the  Duke. 

1831. 

September  22d. — The  night  before  last  Croker  and  Macau- 
lay  made  two  fine  speeches  on  Reform ;  the  former  spoke  for 
two  hours  and  a  half,  and  in  a  way  he  had  never  done  before. 
Macaulay  was  very  brilliant.  There  -was  a  meeting  at  Lord 
Ebrington's  yesterday,  called  by  him,  Lyttelton  Lawley,  and 
of  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  only,  and  they  (with- 
out coming  to  any  resolution)  were  all  agreed  to  prevail  on 
the  Government  not  to  resign  in  the  event  of  the  Reform  Bill 
being  rejected  in  the  House  of  Lords.  I  have  no  doubt,  there- 
fore, in  spite  of  what  Lord  Grey  said,  and  the  other  circum- 
stances I  have  mentioned  above,  that  they  will  not  resign,  and 
I  doubt  whether  there  will  be  any  occasion  for  it. 

There  was  a  dinner  at  Apsley  House  yesterday;  the 
Cabinet  of  Opposition,  to  discuss  matters  before  having  a 
general  meeting.  At  this  dinner  there  were  sixteen  or  seven- 
teen present,  all  the  leading  anti-Reformers  of  the  Peers. 
They  agreed  to  oppose  the  second  reading.  Dudley,  who  was 
there,  told  me  it  was  tragedy  first  and  farce  afterward ;  for 
Eldon  and  Kenyon,  who  had  dined  with  the  Duke  of  Cumber- 


10  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

land,  came  in  after  dinner.  Chairs  were  placed  for  them  on 
each  side  of  the  Duke,  and  after  he  had  explained  to  them 
what  they  had  been  discussing,  and  what  had  been  agreed 
upon,  Kenyon  made  a  long  speech  on  the  first  reading  of  the 
Bill,  in  which  it  was  soon  apparent  that  he  was  very  drunk, 
for  he  talked  exceeding  nonsense,  wandered  from  one  topic  to 
another,  and  repeated  the  same  things  over  and  over  again. 
When  he  had  done  Eldon  made  a  speech  on  the  second  read- 
ing, and  appeared  to  be  equally  drunk,  only,  Lord  Bathurst 
told  me,  Kenyon  in  his  drunkenness  talked  nonsense,  but  El- 
don sense.  Dudley  said  it  was  not  that  they  were  as  drunk 
as  lords  and  gentlemen  sometimes  are,  but  they  were-  drunk 
like  porters.  Lyndhurst  was  not  there,  though  invited.  He 
dined  at  Holland  House.  It  is  pretty  clear,  however,  that  he 
will  vote  for  the  second  reading,  for  his  wife  is  determined  he 
shall.  I  saw  her  yesterday,  and  she  is  full  of  pique  and  re- 
sentment against  the  Opposition  and  the  Duke,  half  real  and 
half  pretended,  and  chatters  away  about  Lyndhurst's  not 
being  their  cat's-paw,  and  that  if  they  choose  to  abandon  him, 
they  must  not  expect  him  to  sacrifice  himself  for  them.  The 
pretexts  she  takes  are,  that  they  would  not  go  to  the  House  of 
Lords  on  Tuesday  and  support  him  against  Brougham  on  the 
Bankruptcy  Bill,  and  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington  wrote  to 
her  and  desired  her  to  influence  her  husband  in  the  matter 
of  Reform.  The  first  is  a  joke,  the  second  there  might  be 
a  little  in,  for  vanity  is  always  uppermost,  but  they  have 
both  some  motive  of  interest,  which  they  will  pursue  in  what- 
ever way  they  best  can.  The  excuse  they  make  is  that  they 
want  to  conceal  their  strength  from  the  Government,  and 
accordingly  the  Duke  of  Wellington  has  not  yet  entered  any 
of  his  proxies.  The  truth  is  that  I  am  by  no  means  sure 
now  that  it  is  safe  or  prudent  to  oppose  the  second  reading ; 
and  though  I  think  it  very  doubtful  if  any  practicable  altera- 
tion will  be  made  in  Committee,  it  will  be  better  to  take 
that  chance,  and  the  chance  of  an  accommodation  and  com- 
promise between  the  two  parties  and  the  two  Houses,  than 
to  attack  it  in  front.  It  is  clear  that  Government  are  re- 
solved to  carry  the  Bill,  and  equally  clear  that  no  means  they 
can  adopt  would  be  unpopular.  They  are  averse  to  making 
more  Peers  if  they  can  help  it,  and  would  rather  go  quietly 
on,  without  any  fresh  changes,  and  I  believe  they  are  .con- 
scientiously persuaded  that  this  Bill  is  the  least  democratical 
Bill  it  is  possible  to  get  the  country  to  accept,  and  that,  if 


1831.]  THE  REFORM  BILL.  H 

offered  in  time,  this  one  will  be  accepted.  I  had  heard  before 
that  the  country  is  not  enamored  of  this  Bill,  but  I  fear  that 
it  is  true  that  they  are  only  indifferent  to  the  Conservative 
clauses  of  it  (if  I  may  so  term  them),  and  for  that  reason  it 
may  be  doubtful  whether  there  would  not  be  such  a  clamor 
raised  in  the  event  of  the  rejection  of  this  Bill  as  would  com- 
pel the  Ministers  to  make  a  new  one,  more  objectionable  than 
the  old.  If  its  passing  clearly  appears  to  be  inevitable,  why, 
the  sooner  it  is  done  the  better,  for  at  least  one  immense 
object  will  be  gained  in  putting  an  end  to  agitation,  and  re- 
storing the  country  to  good-humor,  and  it  is  desirable  that  the 
House  of  Lords  should  stand  as  well  with  the  people  as  it  can. 
It  is  better,  as  Burke  says,  "  to  do  early,  and  from  foresight, 
that  which  we  may  be  obliged  to  do  from  necessity  at  last." 
I  am  not  more  delighted  with  Reform  than  I  have  ever  been, 
but  it  is  the  part  of  prudence  to  take  into  consideration  the 
present  and  the  future,  and  not  to  harp  upon  the  past.  It 
matters  not  how  the  country  has  been  worked  up  to  its  pres- 
ent state,  if  a  calm  observation  convinces  us  that  the  spirit 
that  has  beep  raised  cannot  be  allayed,  and  that  is  very  clear 
to  me. 

September  2<ith. — Peel  closed  the  debate  on  Thursday 
night  with  a  very  fine  speech,  the  best  (one  of  his  opponents 
told  me,  and  it  is  no  use  asking  the  opinions  of  friends  if  a 
candid  opponent  is  to  be  found)  he  had  ever  made,  not  only 
on  that  subject,  but  on  any  other ;  he  cut  Macaulay  to  rib- 
bons. Macaulay  is  very  brilliant,  but  his  speeches  are 
harangues  and  never  replies ;  whereas  Peel's  long  expe- 
rience and  real  talent  for  debate  give  him  a  great  advantage 
in  the  power  of  reply,  which  he  very  eminently  possesses. 
Macaulay,  however,  will  probably  be  a  very  distinguished 
man.  These  debates  have  elicited  a  vast  deal  of  talent,  and 
have  served  as  touchstones  to  try  real  merit  and  power.  As 
a  proof  of  what  practice  and  a  pretty  good  understanding  can 
do,  there  is  Althorp,  who  now  appears  to  be  an  excellent 
leader,  and  contrives  to  speak  decently  upon  all  subjects, 
quite  as  much  as  a  leader  need  do ;  for  I  have  always  thought 
that  it  should  not  be  his  business  to  furnish  rhetoric  and  flow- 
ers of  eloquence,  but  good-humor,  judgment,  firmness,  discre- 
tion, business-like  talents,  and  gentlemanlike  virtues. 

Dined  at  Richmond  on  Friday  with  the  Lyndhursts ;  the 
mari  talks  against  the  Bill,  the  women  for  it.  They  are  like 
the  old  divisions  of  families  in  the  Civil  Wars. 


12  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

My  brother-in-law  and  sister  are  just  returned  from  a  tour 
of  three  weeks  in  Holland ;  curious  spectacle,  considering  the 
state  of  the  rest  of  Europe,  nothing  but  loyalty  and  enthu- 
siasm, adoration  of  the  Orange  family ;  2,000,000  of  people, 
and  an  army  of  110,000  men ;  everybody  satisfied  with  the 
Government,  and  no  desire  for  Reform. 

Paris,  on  the  point  of  exploding,  is  again  tranquil,  but 
nobody  can  tell  for  how  long.  They  bet  two  to  one  here  that 
the  Reform  Bill  is  thrown  out  on  the  second  reading ;  and 
what  then  ?  The  meeting  at  Ebrington's  was  flat,  nothing 
agreed  on.  Hume  wanted  to  pass  some  violent  resolution, 
but  was  overruled.  Milton  made  a  foolish  speech,  with  pro- 
spective menaces  and  present  nothingness  in  it,  and  they  sep- 
arated without  having  done  good  or  harm. 

Neicmarket,  October  1st. — Came  here  last  night,  to  my 
great  joy,  to  get  holidays,  and  leave  Reform  and  cholera  and 
politics  for  racing  and  its  amusements.  Just  before  I  came 
away  I  met  Lord  Wharncliffe,  and  asked  him  about  his  inter- 
view with  Radical  Jones.  This  blackguard  considers  himself  a 
sort  of  chief  of  a  faction,  and  one  of  the  heads  of  the  sans-culot- 
tins  of  the  present  day.  He  wrote  to  Lord  Wharncliffe  and  said 
he  wished  to  confer  with  him,  that  if  he  would  grant  him  an 
interview  he  might  bring  any  person  he  pleased  to  witness 
what  passed  between  them.  Lord  Wharncliffe  replied  that 
he  would  call  on  him,  and  should  be  satisfied  to  have  no  wit- 
ness. Accordingly  he  did  so,  when  the  other,  in  very  civil 
terms,  told  him  that  he  wished  to  try  and  impress  upon  his 
mind  (as  he  was  one  of  the  heads  of  anti-Reform  in  the 
House  of  Lords)  how  dangerous  it  would  be  to  reject  this 
Bill,  that  all  sorts  of  excesses  would  follow  its  rejection,  that 
their  persons  and  properties  would  be  periled,  and  resistance 
would  be  unavailing,  for  that  they  (the  Reformers)  were  re- 
solved to  carry  their  point.  Lord  Wharncliffe  asked  whether 
if  this  was  conceded  they  would  be  satisfied.  Jones  replied, 
"  Certainly  not ;  "  that  they  must  go  a  great  deal  further,  that 
an  hereditary  peerage  was  not  to  be  defended  on  any  reasonable 
theory.  Still,  he  was  not  for  doing  away  with  it,  that  he 
wished  the  changes  that  were  inevitable  to  take  place  quietly, 
and  without  violence  or  confusion.  After  some  more  discourse 
in  this  strain  they  separated,  but  very  civilly,  and  without  any 
intemperance  of  expression  on  the  part  of  the  Reformer. 

On  Monday  the  battle  begins  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
up  to  this  time  nobody  knows  how  it  will  go,  each  party  being 


1831.]        REFORM   BILL   THROWN   OUT  BY   THE   LORDS.  13 

confident,  but  opinion  generally  in  favor  of  the  Bill  being 
thrown  out.  There  is  nothing  more  curious  in  this  question 
than  the  fact  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  find  anybody  who 
is  satisfied  with  the  part  he  himself  takes  upon  it,  and  that  it 
is  generally  looked  upon  as  a  choice  of  evils,  in  which  the 
only  thing  to  do  is  to  choose  the  least.  The  Reformers  say, 
You  had 'better  pass  the  Bill  or  you  will  have  a  worse.  The 
moderate  anti-Reformers  would  be  glad  to  suffer  the  second 
reading  to  pass  and  alter  it  in  Committee,  but  they  do  not 
dare  do  so,  because  the  sulky,  stupid,  obstinate  High  Tories 
declare  that  they  will  throw  the  whole  thing  up,  and  not 
attempt  to  alter  the  Bill  if  it  passes  the  second  reading. 
Every  man  seems  tossed  about  by  opposite  considerations 
and  the  necessity  of  accommodating  his  own  conduct  to  the 
caprices,  passions,  and  follies  of  others. 

Riddlesworth,  October  10th. — At  Newmarket  all  last  week; 
all  the  Peers  absent ;  here  since  Friday.  Yesterday  morning 
the  newspapers  (all  in  black J)  announced  the  defeat  of  the 
Reform  Bill  by  a  majority  of  forty-one,  at  seven  o'clock  on 
Saturday  morning,  after  five  nights'  debating.  By  all  ac- 
counts the  debate  was  a  magnificent  display,  and  incompara- 
bly superior  to  that  of  the  House  of  Commons,  but  the  reports 
convey  no  idea  of  it.  The  great  speakers  on  either  side  were : 
Lords  Grey,  Lansdowne,  Goderich,  Plunket,  and  the  Chan- 
cellor, for  the  Bill ;  against  it,  Lords  Wharncliffe  (who  moved 
the  amendment),  Harrowby,  Carnarvon,  Dudley,  Wynford,  and 
Lyndhurst.  The  Duke  of  Wellington's  speech  was  exceed- 
ingly bad ;  he  is,  in  fact,  and  has  proved  it  in  repeated  in- 
stances, unequal  to  argue  a  great  constitutional  question.  He 
has  neither  the  command  of  language,  the  power  of  reasoning, 
nor  the  knowledge  requisite  for  such  an  effort.  Lord  Har- 
rowby's  speech  was  amazingly  fine,  and  delivered  with  great 
effect ;  and  the  last  night  the  Chancellor  is  said  to  have  sur- 
passed all  his  former  exploits,  Lyndhurst  to  have  been  nearly 
as  good,  and  Lord  Grey  very  great  in  reply.  There  was  no 
excitement  in  London  the  following  day,  and  nothing  particu- 
lar happened  but  the  Chancellor  being  drawn  from  Downing 
Street  to  Berkeley  Square  in  his  carriage  by  a  very  poor  mob. 
The  majority  was  much  greater  than  -anybody  expected,  and 
it  is  to  be  hoped  may  be  productive  of  good  by  showing  the 
necessity  of  a  compromise;  for  no  Minister  can  make  sixty 

i  [Not  all  of  them ;  neither  the  Times  nor  the  Morning  Herald.} 


14  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

Peers,  which  Lord  Grey  must  do  to  carry  this  Bill ;  it  would 
be  to  create  another  House  of  Lords.  Nobody  knows  what 
the  Ministers  would  do,  but  it  was  thought  they  would  not 
resign.  A  meeting  of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons 
was  held  under  the  auspices  of  Ebrington,  to  agree  upon  a 
resolution  of  confidence  in  the  Government  this  day.  The 
majority  and  the  magnificent  display  of  eloquence  and  ability 
in  the  House  of  Lords  must  exalt  the  character  and  dignity 
of  that  House,  and  I  hope  increase  its  efficacy  for  good  pur- 
poses and  for  resistance  to  this  Bill.  It  may  be  hoped,  too, 
that  the  apathy  of  the  capital  may  have  some  effect  in  the 
countr}*,  though  the  unions,  which  are  so  well  disciplined  and 
under  the  control  of  their  orators,  will  make  a  stir.  On  the 
whole  I  rejoice  at  this  result,  though  I  had  taken  fright  before, 
and  thought  it  better  the  Bill  should  be  read  a  second  time 
than  be  thrown  out  by  a  very  small  majority. 

While  the  debates  have  been  going  on  there  have  been 
two  elections,  one  of  the  Lord  Mayor  in  the  City,  which  the 
Reformers  have  carried  after  a  sharp  contest,  and  the  contest 
for  Dorsetshire  between  Ponsonby  and  Ashley,  which  is  not 
yet  over.  Ponsonby  had  a  week's  start  of  his  opponent, 
notwithstanding  which  it  is  so  severe  that  they  have  been  for 
some  days  within  ten  or  fifteen  of  each  other,  and  (what  is 
remarkable)  the  anti-Reformer  is  the  popular  candidate,  and 
has  got  all  the  mob  with  him.  This  certainly  is  indicative 
of  some  change,  though  not  of  a  reaction,  in  public  opinion. 
There  is  no  longer  the  same  vehemence  of  desire  for  this  Bill, 
and  I  doubt  whether  all  the  efforts  of  the  press  will  be  able 
•to  stimulate  the  people  again  to  the  same  pitch  of  excite- 
ment. 

Buckenham,  October  llth. — Came  here  yesterday ;  no- 
body of  note,  not  lively,  letters  every  day  with  an  account  of 
what  is  passing.  The  Radical  press  is  moving  heaven  and 
earth  to  produce  excitement,  but  without  much  effect.  There 
was  something  of  a  mob  which  marched  about  the  parks,  but 
no  mischief  done.  Londonderry  and  some  others  were  hooted 
near  the  House  of  Lords.  Never -was  a  party  so  crestfallen 
as  I  hear  they  are  ;  they  had  not  a  notion  of  such  a  division 
There  seems  to  be  a  very  general  desire  to  bring  about  a  fail 
compromise,  and  to  have  a  Bill  introduced  next  session  which 
may  be  so  framed  as  to  secure  the  concurrence  of  the  majority 
of  both  Houses.  The  finest  speeches  by  all  accounts  were 
Harrowby's,  Lyndhurst's,  and  Grey's  reply;  but  Henry  de 


1831. J  PARTY  iPIRIT.  15 

Ros,  who  is  a  very  good  judge,  writes  me  word  that  Lynd- 
hurst's  was  the  most  to  his  taste. 

October  12th, — The  Reformers  appear  to  have  rallied  their 
spirits.  Lord  Grey  went  to  Windsor,  was  graciously  received 
by  the  King,  and  obtained  the  dismissal  of  Lord  Howe,  which 
will  serve  to  show  the  King's  entire  good-will  to  his  present 
Ministers.  Ebrington's  resolution  of  confidence  was  carried 
by  a  great  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons  after  some 
violent  speeches  from  Macaulay,  Shiel,  and  O'Connell,  and  very 
moderate  ones  and  in  a  low  tone  on  the  other  side.  Macau- 
lay's  speech  was  as  usual  very  eloquent,  but  as  inflammatory 
as  possible.  Such  men  as  these  three  can  care  nothing  into 
what  state  of  confusion  the  country  is  thrown,  for  all  they 
want  is  a  market  to  which  they  may  bring  their  talents ;  * 
but  how  the  Miltons,  Tavistocks,  Althcrps,  and  all  who  have 
a  great  stake  in  the  country,  can  run  the  same  course  is  more 
than  I  can  conceive  or  comprehend.  Party  is  indeed,  as  Swift 
says,  "  the  madness  of  many,"  when  carried  to  its  present 
pitch.  In  the  mean  time  the  Conservative  party  are  as  usual 
committing  blunders,  which  will  be  fatal  to  them.  Lord  Har- 
rowby  was  to  have  moved  yesterday  or  the  day  before,  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  a  resolution  pledging  the  House  to  take  into 
consideration  early  in  the  next  session  the  acknowledged 
defects  in  the  representation,  with  a  view  to  make  such 
ameliorations  in  it  as  might  be  consistent  with  the  Constitu- 
tion, or  something  to  this  effect.  .  This  has  not  been  done 
because  the  Duke  of  Wellington  objects.  He  will  not  concur 
because  he  thinks  the  proposition  should  come  from  Govern- 
ment ;  as  if  this  was  a  time  to  stand  upon  such  punctilios  and  that 
it  was  not  of  paramount  importance  to  show  the  country  that 
the  Peers  are  not  obstinately  bent  upon  opposing  all  Reform. 
I  had  hoped  that  he  had  profited  by  experience,  and  that  at 
least  his  past  errors  in  politics  might  have  taught  him  a  little 
modesty,  and  that  he  would  not  have  thwarted  measures 
which  were  proposed  by  the  wisest  and  most  disinterested  of 
his  own  party.  I  can  conceive  no  greater  misfortune  at  this 
moment  than  such  a  disunion  of  that  party,  and  to  have  its 
deliberations  ruled  by  the  obstinacy  and  prejudices  of  the 
Duke.  He  is  a  great  man  in  little  things,  but  a  little  man  in 
great  matters — I  mean  in  civil  affairs ;  in  those  mighty  ques- 
tions which  embrace  enormous  and  various  interests  and  con- 

1  This  was  very  unjust  to  Macaulay,  and  not  true  as  to  Shiel ;  to  O'Connell 
alone  applicable. 


16  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

siderations,  and  to  comprehend  which  great  knowledge  of 
human  nature,  great  sagacity,  coolness,  and  impartiality  are 
required,  he  is  not  fit  to  govern  and  direct.  His  mind  has  not 
been  sufficiently  disciplined,  nor  saturated  with  knowledge 
and  matured  by  reflection  and  communication  with  other 
minds,  to  enable  him  to  be  a  safe  and  efficient  leader  in  such 
times  as  these. 

[In  reading  over  these  remarks  upon  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington, and  comparing  them  with  the  opinions  I  now  enter- 
tain of  his  present  conduct,  and  of  the  nature  and  quality  of 
his  mind,  I  am  compelled  to  ask  myself  whether  I  did  not 
then  do  him  injustice.  On  the  whole  I  think  not.  He  is 
not,  nor  ever  was,  a  little  man  in  any  thing,  great  or  small ; 
but  I  am  satisfied  that  he  has  made  great  political  blunders, 
though  with  the  best  and  most  patriotic  intentions,  and  that 
his  conduct  throughout  the  Reform  contest  was  one  of  the 
greatest  and  most  unfortunate  of  them. — July,  1838.] 

October  14£A. — The  town  continues  quite  quiet;  the 
country  nearly  so.  The  press  strain  every  nerve  to  produce 
excitement  and  the  Times  has  begun  an  assault  on  the 
bishops,  whom  it  has  marked  out  for  vengeance  and  defama- 
tion for  having  voted  against  the  Bill.  Althorp  and  Lord  John 
Russell  have  written  grateful  letters  to  Attwood  as  Chairman 
of  the  Birmingham  Union,  thus  indirectly  acknowledging 
that  puissant  body.  There  was  a  desperate  strife  in  the 
House  of  Lords  between  Phillpotts  and  Lord  Grey,  in  which 
the  former  got  a  most  tremendous  dressing.  Times  must 
be  mightily  changed  when  my  sympathies  go  with  this 
bishop,  and  even  now,  though  full  of  disgust  with  the  other 
faction,  I  have  a  pleasure  in  seeing  him  trounced.  The 
shade  of  Canning  may  rejoice  at  the  sight  of  Grey  smiting 
Phillpotts.  Even  on  such  a  question  Phillpotts  was  essentially 
in  the  right;  but  he  lost  his  temper,  floundered,  and  got 
punished.  It  was  most  indecent  and  disgusting  to  hear 
Brougham  from  the  Woolsack,  in  a  strain  of  the  bitterest 
irony  and  sarcasm,  but  so  broad  as  to  be  without  the  sem- 
blance of  disguise,  attack  the  bench  of  bishops.  I  am  of 
opinion  that  it  would  have  been  far  better  never  to  have  let 
them  back  into  the  House  of  Lords,  but  now  that  they  are 
there  I  would  not  thrust  them  out,  especially  at  this  moment. 
Lord  Grey  in  this  debate  gave  no  handle  certainly,  for  he 
interposed  in  their  favor,  and  rebuked  Lord  Suffield,  who 


.831.]  DANGERS   OF  REFORM.  17 

attacked  them  first,  and  told  him  he  was  out  of  order,  and 
then  Phillpotts  very  foolishly  attacked  him. 

October  15th. — A  furious  attack  in  the  House  of  Commons 
upon  Althorp's  and  John  Russell's  letters  to  Attwood  by 
Hardinge  and  Vyvyan.  Peel  not  there,  having  hopped  off  to 
Staffordshire,  to  the  great  disgust  of  his  party,  whom  he 
never  scruples  to  leave  in  the  lurch.  They  made  wretched 
excuses  for  these  letters,  and  could  only  have  recourse  to  the 
pretense  of  indignation  at  being  thought  capable  of  foment- 
ing disorders,  which  is  all  very  well ;  but  they  do  foment 
discord  and  discontent  by  every  means  in  their  power.  With 
a  yelling  majority  in  the  House,  and  a  desperate  press  out 
of  it,  they  go  on  in  their  reckless  course  without  fear  or 
shame.  Lord  Harrowby  made  a  speech  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  declared  his  conviction  that  the  time  was  come 
for  effecting  a  Reform,  and  that  he  would  support  one  to  a 
certain  extent,  which  he  specified.  In  the  House  he  was 
coolly  received,  and  the  Times  hardly  deigned  to  notice 
what  he  said.  Parliament  is  to  be  up  on  Thursday  next, 
and  will  probably  not  meet  till  January,  when,  of  course, 
the  first  thing  done  will  be  to  bring  in  the  Bill  again.  What, 
then,  is  gained  ?  For  as  Ministers  take  every  opportunity  of 
declaring  that  they  will  accept  nothing  less  efficient  (as 
they  call  it)  than  the  present  Bill,  no  compromise  can  be 
looked  for.  Lord  Harrowby  is  the  only  man  who  has  said 
what  he  will  do,  and  probably  he  goes  further  than  the  bulk 
of  his  party  would  approve  of;  and  yet  he  is  far  behind  the 
Ministerial  plan.  So  that  there  seems  little  prospect  of 
getting  off  for  less  than  the  old  Bill,  for  the  Opposition  will 
hardly  venture  to  stop  the  next  in  limine  as  they  did  this. 
I  do  not  see  why  they  should  hope  to  amend  the  next  Bill  in 
Committee  any  more  than  the  last,  and  the  division  which 
they  dreaded  the  other  day  is  not  less  likely,  and  would  not 
be  less  fatal  upon  another  occasion.  If,  then,  it  is  to  pass  at 
last,  it  comes  back  to  what  I  thought  before,  that  it  might  as 
well  have  passed  at  first  as  at  last,  and  the  excitement  con- 
sequent on  its  rejection"  have  been  spared,  as  well  as  the  odium 
which  has  accrued  to  the  Peers,  which  will  not  be  forgotten 
or  laid  aside. 

The  Dorsetshire  election  promises  to  end  in  favor  of  Ash- 
ley, and  there  will  be  a  contest  for  Cambridgeshire,  which 
may  also  end  in  favor  of  the  anti-Reform  candidate.  These 
victories  I  really  believe  to  be  unfortunate,  for  they  are  taken 


13  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

(I  am  arguing  as  if  they  were  won,  though,  with  regard  to 
the  first,  it  is  the  same  thing  by  contrast  with  the  last  elec- 
tion) by  the  Tories  and  anti-Reform  champions  as  undoubted 
proofs  of  the  reaction  of  public  opinion,  and  they  are  thereby 
encouraged  to  persevere  in  opposition  under  the  false  notion 
that  this  supposed  reaction  will  every  day  gain  ground.  I 
wish  it  were  so  with  all  my  soul,  but  believe  it  is  no  such 
thing,  and  that  although  there  may  be  fewer  friends  to  the 
Sill  than  there  were,  particularly  among  the  agriculturists, 
Reform  is  not  a  whit  less  popular  with  the  mass  of  the  people 
in  the  manufacturing  districts,  throughout  the  unions,  and 
generally  among  all  classes  and  in  ah1  parts  of  the  country. 
When  I  see  men,  and  those  in  very  great  numb'ers,  of  the 
highest  birth,  of  immense  fortunes,  of  undoubted  integrity 
and  acknowledged  talents,  zealously  and  conscientiously  sup- 
porting this  measure,  I  own  I  am  lost  in  astonishment,  and 
even  doubt ;  for  I  can't  help  asking  myself  whether  it  is  pos- 
sible that  such  men  would  be  the  advocates  of  measures 
fraught  with  all  the  peril  we  ascribe  to  these,  whether  we  are 
not  in  reality  mistaken,  and  laboring  under  groundless  alarm 
generated  by  habitual  prejudices  and  erroneous  calculations. 
But  often  as  this  doubt  comes  across  my  mind,  it  is  always 
dispelled  by  a  reference  to  and  comparison  of  the  arguments 
on  both  sides,  and  by  the  Jiessons  which  all  that  I  have  ev<er 
read,  and  all  the  conclusions  I  have  been  able  to  draw  from 
the  study  of  history  have  impressed  on  my  mind.  I  believe 
these  measures  full  of  danger,  but  that  the  manner  in  which 
they  have  been  introduced,  discussed,  defended,  and  sup- 
ported, is  more  dangerous  still.  The  total  unsettlement  of 
men's  minds,  the  bringing  into  contempt  all  the  institutions 
which  have  been  hitherto  venerated,  the  aggrandizement  of 
the  power  of  the  people,  the  embodying  and  recognition  of 
popular  authority,  the  use  and  abuse  of  the  King's  name,  the 
truckling  to  the  press,  are  things  so  subversive  of  govern- 
ment, so  prejudicial  to  order  and  tranquillity,  so  encouraging 
to  sedition  and  disaffection,  that  I  do  not  see  the  possibility 
of  the  country  settling  down  into  that  calm  and  undisturbed 
state  in  which  it  was  before  this  question  was  mooted,  and 
without  which  there  can  be  no  happiness  or  security  to  the 
community.  A  thousand  mushroom  orators  and  politicians 
have  sprung  up  all  over  the  country,  each  big  with  his  own 
ephemeral  importance,  and  every  one  of  whom  fancies  him- 
self fit  to  govern  the  nation.  Among  them  are  some  men  of 


1831.]  RIOTS   AT   BRISTOL.  19 

active  and  powerful  minds,  and  nothing  is  less  probable  than 
that  these  spirits  of  mischief  and  misrule  will  be  content  to 
subside  into  their  original  nothingness,  and  retire  after  the 
victory  has  been  gained  into  the  obscurity  from  which  they 
emerged. 

Newmarket,  October  23d. — Nothing  but  racing  all  this 
week  ;  Parliament  has  been  prorogued  and  all  is  quiet.  The 
world  seems  tired,  and  requires  rest.  How  soon  it  will  all 
begin  again  God  knows,  but  it  will  not  be  suffered  to  sleep 
long. 

London,  November  \\th. — Nothing  written  for  a  long 
time  ;  I  went  'after  the  second  October  meeting  to  Euston, 
and  from  thence  to  Horsham,  returned  to  Newmarket,  was 
going  to  Felbrigg,  but  came  to  town  on  Tuesday  last  (the 
8th)  on  account  of  the  cholera,  which  has  broken  out  at  Sun- 
derland.  The  country  was  beginning  to  slumber  after  the 
fatigues  of  Reform,  when  it  was  rattled  up  by  the  business  of 
Bristol,1  which  for  brutal  ferocity  and  wanton,  unprovoked 
violence  may  vie  with  some  of  the  worst  scenes  of  the 
French  Revolution,  and  may  act  as  a  damper  to  our  national 
pride.  The  spirit  which  produced  these  atrocities  was  gen- 
erated by  Reform,  but  no  pretext  was  afforded  for  their  actual 
commission ;  it  was  a  premature  outbreaking  of  the  thirst  for 
plunder,  and  longing  after  havoc  and  destruction,  which  is 
the  essence  of  Reform  in  the  mind  of  the  mob.  The  details 
are  ample,  and  to  be  met  with  everywhere  ;  nothing  could  ex- 
ceed the  ferocity  of  the  populace,  the  imbecility  of  the  magis- 
tracy, or  the  good  conduct  of  the  troops.  More  punishment 
was  inflicted  by  them  than  has  been  generally  known,  and 
some  hundreds  were  killed  or  severely  wounded  by  the  sabre. 
One  body  of  dragoons  pursued  a  rabble  of  colliers  into  the  coun- 
try, and  covered  the  fields  and  roads  with  the  bodies  of  wound- 
ed wretches,  making  a  severe  example  of  them.  In  London 
there  would  probably  have  been  a  great  uproar  and  riot,  but 
fortunately  Melbourne,  who  was  frightened  to  death  at  the 
Bristol  affair,  gave  Lord  Hill  and  Fitzroy  Somerset  carte 
llanclie,  and  they  made  such  a  provision  of  military  force  in 
addition  to  the  civil  power  that  the  malcontents  were  par- 
alyzed. The  Bristol  business  has  done  some  good,  inasmuch 

1  [Riots  broke  out  with  great  violence  at  Bristol  on  the  29th  of  October,  the 
pretext  being  the  entry  of  Sir  Charles  Wetherell  into  that  city  (of  which  he  was 
Recorder),  who  was  notorious  for  his  violent  opposition  to  the  Reform  Bill. 
Mucli  property  was  destroyed,  and  many  lives  lost.] 


30  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

as  it  has  opened  people's  eyes  (at  least  so  it  is  said),  but  if  we 
are  to  go  on  as  we  do  with  a  mob-ridden  Government  and  a 
foolish  King,  who  renders  himself  subservient  to  all  the  wick- 
edness and  folly  of  his  Ministers,  where  is  the  advantage  of 
having  people's  eyes  open,  when  seeing  they  will  not  perceive, 
and  hearing  they  will  not  understand  ?  Nothing  was  wanting 
to  complete  our  situation  but  the  addition  of  physical  evil  to 
our  moral  plague,  and  that  is  come  in  the  shape  of  the  cholera, 
which  broke  out  in  Sunderland  a  few  days  ago.  To  meet  the 
exigency  Government  has  formed  another  Board  of  Health, 
but  without  dissolving  the  first,  though  the  second  is  intended 
to  swallow  up  the  first  and  leave  it  a  mere  nullity.  Lord 
Lansdowne,  who.  is  President  of  the  Council,  an  office  which 
for  once  promises  not  to  be  a  sinecure,  has  taken  the  oppor- 
tunity to  go  to  Bowood,  and  having  come  up  (sent  for  ex- 
press) on  account  of  the  cholera  the  day  it  was  officially  de- 
clared really  to  be  that  disease,  he  has  trotted  back  to  his 
house  in  the  country. 

November  14£A. — For  the  last  two  or  three  days  the  re- 
ports from  Sunderland  about  the  cholera  have  been  of  a  doubt- 
ful character.  The  disease  makes  so  little  progress  that  the 
doctors  begin  again  to  doubt  whether  it  is  the  Indian  cholera, 
and  the  merchants,  ship-owners,  and  inhabitants,  who  suffer 
from  the  restraints  imposed  upon  an  infected  place,  are  loudly 
complaining  of  the  measures  which  have  been  adopted,  and 
strenuously  insisting  that  their  town  is  in  a  more  healthy 
state  than  usual,  and  that  the  disease  is  no  more  than  what  it 
always  is  visited  with  every  year  at  this  season.  In  the  mean 
time  all  preparations  are  going  on  in  London,  just  as  if  the 
disorder  was  actually  on  its  way  to  the  metropolis.  We  have 
a  Board  at  the  Council  Office,  between  which  and  the  Board 
at  the  College  some  civilities  have  passed,  and  the  latter  is 
now  ready  to  yield  up  its  functions  to  the  former,  which,  how- 
ever, will  not  be  regularly  constituted  without  much  difficulty 
and  many  jealousies,  all  owing  to  official  carelessness  and  mis- 
management. The  Board  has  been  diligently  employed  in 
drawing  up  suggestions  and  instructions  to  local  boards  and 
parochial  authorities,  and  great  activity  has  prevailed  here  in 
establishing  committees  for  the  purpose  of  visiting  the  different 
districts  of  the  metropolis,  and  making  such  arrangements  as 
may  be  necessary  in  the  event  of  sickness  breaking  out. 
There  is  no  lack  of  money  or  labor  for  this  end,  and  one  great 
good  will  be  accomplished,  let  what  will  happen,  for  much  of 


1831.]  OVERTURES  FOR   A  COMPROMISE.  21 

the  filth  and  misery  of  the  town  will  be  brought  to  light,  and 
the  condition  of  the  poorer  and  more  wretched  of  the  inhabit- 
ants can  hardly  fail  to  be  ameliorated.  The  reports  from  Sun- 
derland  exhibit  a  state  of  human  misery,  and  necessarily  of 
moral  degradation,  such  as  I  hardly  ever  heard  of,  and  it  is  no 
wonder,  when  a  great  part  of  the  community  is  plunged  into 
such  a  condition  (and  we  may  fairly  suppose  that  there  is  a 
gradually  mounting  scale,  with  every  degree  of  wretchedness 
up  to  the  wealth  and  splendor  which  glitter  on  the  surface  of 
society),  that  there  should  be  so  many  who  are  ripe  for  any 
desperate  scheme  of  revolution.  At  Sunderland  they  say  there 
are  houses  with  150  inmates,  who  are  huddled  five  and  six  in 
a  bed.  They  are  in  the  lowest  state  of  poverty.  The  sick  in 
these  receptacles  are  attended  by  an  apothecary's  boy,  who 
brings  them  (or  I  suppose  tosses  them)  medicines  without 
distinction  or  inquiry. 

I  saw  Lord  Wharncliffe  last  night,  just  returned  from 
Yorkshire ;  he  gives  a  bad  account  of  the  state  of  the  public 
mind ;  he  thinks  that  there  is  a  strong  revolutionary  spirit 
abroad  ;  told  me  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington  had  written  to 
the  King  a  memorial  upon  the  danger  of  the  associations  that 
were  on  foot. 

Roehampton,  November  ~L9th. — On  Tuesday  last  I  went 
with  the  Duke  of  Richmond  to  pass  a  day  at  Shirley  Lodge, 
a  house  that  has  been  lent  him  by  Mr.  Maberly,  and  there  we 
had  a  great  deal  of  conversation  about  Reform  and  general 
politics,  in  the  course  of  which  I  was  struck  by  his  apparent 
candor  and  moderation,  and  when  I  told  him  that  nothing 
would  do  but  a  compromise  between  the  parties  he  acceded 
to  that  opinion,  and  said  that  he  should  like  to  go  to  Lord 
Wharncliffe,  and  talk  the  matter  over  with  him.  This  was  on 
Wednesday.  Yesterday  morning  I  called  on  Lord  Wharn- 
cliffe, and  told  him  what  Richmond  had  said.  He  was  sitting 
before  a  heap  of  papers,  and  when  I  told  him  this  he  laughed 
and  said  that  Richmond  was  behindhand,  that  matters  had 
gone  a  great  deal  further  than  this,  and  then  proceeded  to 
give  me  the  following  account  of  what  had  passed :  A  short 
time  ago  Palmerston  spoke  to  his  son,  John  Wortley,  and  ex- 
pressed a  desire  that  some  compromise  could  be  effected  be- 
tween the  Government  and  the  Opposition  leaders,  which 
John  imparted  to  Lord  Harrowby  and  his  father.  The  over- 
ture was  so  well  received  by  them  that  Stanley  went  to  San- 
don,  Lord  Harrowby's  place  in  Staffordshire,  in  his  way  to 


22  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

Ireland,  with  Lord  Grey's  consent,  to  talk  it  over  with  Lord 
Sandon.  After  this  Lord  Wharncliffe  went  to  Sandon,  and 
the  two  fathers  and  two  sons  discussed  the  matter,  and  came 
to  a  sort  of  general  resolution  as  to  the  basis  on  which  they 
would  treat,  which  they  drew  up,  and  which  Wharncliffe  read 
to  me.  It  was  moderate,  temperate,  embraced  ample  con- 
cessions, and  asserted  the  necessity  of  each  party  refraining 
from  demanding  of  the  other  what  either  was  so  pledged  to 
as  to  be  unable  to  concede  without  dishonor.  On  Wharn- 
cliffe's  return  to  town  he  again  saw  Palmerston,  and  commu- 
nicated to  him  Harrowby's  concurrence  in  an  equitable  adjust- 
ment of  the  Reform  question,  and  then  suggested  that  if 
Government  really  desired  this,  it  would  be  better  that  he 
(Wharncliffe)  should  see  Lord  Grey  himself  on  the  subject. 
Palmerston  told  Lord  Grey,  who  assented,  and  gave  Wharn- 
cliffe a  rendezvous  at  East  Sheen  on  Wednesday  last.  There 
they  had  a  long  conversation,  which  by  its  account  was  con- 
ducted in  a  very  fair  and  amicable  spirit  on  both  sides,  and 
they  seem  to  have  come  to  a  good  understanding  as  to  the 
principle  on  which  they  should  treat.  On  parting,  Grey 
shook  hands  with  him  twice,  and  told  him  he  had  not  felt  so 
much  relieved  for  a  long  time.  The  next  day  Lord  Grey 
made  a  minute  of  their  conversation,  which  he  submitted  to 
the  Cabinet ;  they  approved  of  it,  and  he  sent  it  to  Wharn- 
cliffe to  peruse,  who  returned  it  to  Lord  Grey.  In  this  state 
the  matter  stood  yesterday  morning,  apparently  with  every 
prospect  of  being  arranged.  Wharncliffe  had  already  spoken 
to  Dudley,  Lyndhurst,  and  De  Ros,  the  only  Peers  of  his 
party  he  had  seen,  and  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
who  were  all  delighted  at  what  had  passed.  He  had  written 
to  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Peel,  and  he  is  busying  him- 
self in  consulting  and  communicating  with  all  the  Peers  and 
influential  Commoners  of  the  party  whom  he  can  find  in 
town.  The  terms  are  not  settled,  but  the  general  basis  agreed 
upon  seems  to  be  this :  the  concession  of  Schedule  A,  of  rep- 
resentatives to  the  great  towns,  and  a  great  extension  of  the 
county  representation  on  one  side ;  the  abandonment,  or 
nearly  so,  of  Schedule  B,  such  an  arrangement  with  regard  to 
the  £10  qualification  as  shall  have  the  practical  effect  of  a 
higher  rate,  and  an  understanding  that  the  manufacturing 
interest  is  not  to  have  a  preponderating  influence  in  the 
county  representation ;  a  great  deal  to  be  left  open  to  dis- 
cussion, especially  on  all  the  subordinate  points. 


1831.]  NEGOTIATION   WITH   THE   WAVEEEES.  23 

Such  is  the  history  of  this  curious  transaction,  which 
affords  a  triumphant  justification  of  the  course  which  the 
Opposition  adopted;  indeed,  Palmerston  admitted  to  Wharn- 
clifl'e  that  their  tactics  had  been  entirely  judicious.  It  is 
likewise  a  great  homage  rendered  to  character,  for  Wharn- 
cliffe  has  neither  wealth,  influence,  nor  superior  abilities,  nor 
even  popularity  with  his  own  party.  He  is  a  spirited, 
sensible,  zealous,  honorable,  consistent  country  gentleman  ; 
their  knowledge  of  his  moderation  and  integrity  induced 
Ministers  to  commit  themselves  to  him,  and  he  will  thus  be 
in  all  probability  enabled  to  render  an  essential  service  to 
his  country,  and  be  a  principal  instrument  in  the  settlement 
of  a  question  the  continued  agitation  of  which  would  have 
been  perilous  in  the  extreme.  Besides  the  prospect  of  a  less 
objectionable  Bill,  an  immense  object  is  gained  in  the  com- 
plete separation  of  the  Ministry  from  the  subversive  party, 
for  their  old  allies  the  Radicals  will  never  forgive  them  for 
this  compromise  with  the  anti-Reformers,  and  they  have  now 
no  alternative  but  to  unite  with  those  who  call  themselves 
the  Conservative  party  against  the  rebels,  republicans,  as- 
sociators,  and  all  the  disaffected  in  the  country.  After  all 
their  declarations  and  their  unbending  insolence,  to  have 
brought  down  their  pride  to  these  terms,  and  to  the  humilia- 
tion of  making  overtures  to  a  party  whose  voice  was  only  the 
other  day  designated  by  John  Russell  as  "  the  whisper  of  a 
faction,"  shows  plainly  how  deeply  alarmed  they  are  at  the 
general  state  of  the  country,  and  how  the  conflagration  of 
Bristol  has  suddenly  illuminated  their  minds.  That  incident, 
the  language  of  the  associations,  the  domiciliary  visits  to 
Lord  Grey  at  midnight  of  Place  and  his  rabble,  and  the 
licentiousness  of  the  press,  have  opened  their  eyes,  and  con- 
vinced them  that  if  existing  institutions  are  to  be  preserved 
at  all  there  is  no  time  to  be  lost  in  making  such  an  arrange- 
ment as  may  enable  all  who  have  any  thing  to  lose  to 
coalesce  for  their  mutual  safety  and  protection.  Whatever 
may  be  the  amount  of  their  concessions,  the  Radicals  will 
never  pardon  Lord  Grey  for  negotiating  with  the  Tories  at 
all,  and  nothing  will  prevent  his  being  henceforward  the 
object  of  their  suspicion  and  aversion,  and  marked  out  for 
their  vengeance.  By  what  process  Althorp  and  John  Russell 
were  induced  to  concur,  and  how  they  are  to  set  about  swal- 
lowing their  own  words,  I  do  not  guess. 

As  a  proof  of  the  disposition  which  exists,  and  the  good 


24=  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

understanding  between  Wharncliffe  and  the  Government,  he 
told  me  that  some  time  ago  Ward  and  Palmer  went  to  him, 
and  said  that  in  the  City  the  majority  of  men  of  weight  and 
property  were  favorable  to  Reform,  but  not  to  the  late  Bill, 
and  that  they  were  desirous  of  having  a  declaration  drawn 
up  for  signature,  expressive  of  their  adherence  to  Reform, 
but  of  their  hope  that  the  next  measure  might  be  such  as 
would  give  satisfaction  to  all  parties.  Wharncliffe  drew  this 
up  (there  was  likewise  an  acknowledgment  of  the  right  of 
the  House  of  Lords  to  exercise  their  privileges  as  they  had 
done)  and  gave  it  to  them.  It  is  gone  to  be  signed,  having 
been  previously  submitted  to  Grey  and  Althorp,  who  approved 
of  it. 

November  21st. — Came  to  town  from  Roehampton  yester- 
day morning,  saw  Henry  de  Ros,  who  had  seen  Barnes  *  the 
evening  before,  and  opened  to  him  the  pending  negotiation. 
His  rage  and  fury  exceeded  all  bounds.  He  swore  Brougham 
and  Grey  (particularly  the  former)  were  the  greatest  of 
villains.  After  a  long  discussion  he  agreed  to  try  and  per- 
suade his  colleagues  to  adopt  a  moderate  tone,  and  not  to 
begin  at  once  to  Jeter  feu  etflamme.  Henry's  object  was  to 
persuade  him,  if  possible,  that  the  interest  of  the  paper  will 
be  in  the  long-run  better  consulted  by  leaning  toward  the 
side  of  order  and  quiet  than  by  continuing  to  exasperate 
and  inflame.  He  seemed  to  a  certain  degree  moved  by  this 
argument,  though  he  is  evidently  a  desperate  Radical.  Henry 
went  to  Melbourne  afterward,  who  is  most  anxious  for  the 
happy  consummation  of  this  affair,  but  expressed  some  alarm 
lest  they  should  be  unable  to  agree  upon  the  details.  There 
is  an  article  in  the  Times  this  morning  of  half-menacing 
import,  sulkily  and  gloomily  written,  but  not  ferocious,  and 
leaving  it  open  to  them  to  take  what  line  they  think  fit.  In 
the  afternoon  I  met  Melbourne,  who  told  me  they  were  going 
to  put  forth  a  proclamation  against  "Attwood  and  the  Bir- 
mingham fellows,"  which  was  grateful  to  my  ears. 

November  22d. — The  King  came  to  town  yesterday  for  a 
Council,  at  which  the  meeting  of  Parliament  on  the  6th  of 
December  was  settled.  The  proclamation  against  the  unions 
(which  was  not  ready,  and  the  King  signed  a  blank)  and 
some  orders  about  cholera  were  dispatched.  Lord  Grey  told 
me  that  the  union  had  already  determined  to  dissolve  itself. 

My  satisfaction  was  yesterday  considerably  damped  by 
1  [Then  editor  of  the  Times  newspaper.] 


1831.]  THE   C1IOLERA  AT  SUNDERLAND.  25 

what  I  heard  of  the  pending  negotiation  concerning  Reform. 
Agar  Ellis  at  Roehampton  talked  with  great  doubt  of  its 
being  successful,  which  I  attributed  to  his  ignorance  of  what 
had  passed,  but  I  fear  it  is  from  his  knowledge  that  the 
Government  mean,  in  fact,  to  give  up  nothing  of  importance. 
George  Bentinck  came  to  me  in  the  morning,  and  told  me  he 
had  discovered  from  the  Duke  of  Richmond  that  the  conces- 
sions were  not  only  to  be  all  one  way,  but  that  the  altered 
Bill  would  be,  in  fact,  more  objectionable  than  the  last,  inas- 
much as  it  is  more  democratic  in  its  tendency,  so  much  so 
that  Richmond  is  exceedingly  dissatisfied  himself,  for  he  has 
always  been  the  advocate  of  the  aristocratic  interest  in  the 
Cabinet,  and  has  battled  to  make  the  Bill  less  adverse  to  it. 
Now  he  says  he  can  contend  no  longer,  for  he  is  met  by  the 
unanswerable  argument  that  their  opponents  are  ready  to 
concede  more.  I  own  I  was  alarmed,  and  my  myid  misgave 
me  when  i  heard  of  the  extreme  satisfaction  of  Althorp 
and  Co.;  and  I  always  dreaded  that  Wharncliffe,  however 
honest  and  well-meaning,  had  not  calibre  enough  to  conduct 
such  a  negotiation,  and  might  be  misled  by  his  vanity.  He 
bustles  about  the  town,  chatting  away  to  all  the  people  he 
meets,  and  I  fear  is  both  ignorant  himself  of  what  he  is  about 
and  involuntarily  deceiving  others  too;  he  is  in  a  fool's  para- 
dise. I  spoke  to  Henry  de  Ros  about  this  last  night,  who 
seemed  by  no  means  arvvare  of  it,  and  it  is  difficult  to  believe 
that  Lyndhurst  and  Harrowby  should  not  be  perfectly  alive  to 
all  the  consequences  of  Wharncliffe's  proceedings,  or  that  they 
would  sanction  them  if  they  had  really  the  tendency  that 
George  Bentinck  gives  me  to  understand. 

The  cholera,  which  is  going  on  {but  without  greatly 
extending  itself)  at  Sunderland,  has  excited  an  unusual  alarm, 
but  it  is  now  beginning  to  subside.  People  seeing  that  it 
does  not  appear  elsewhere  take  courage,  but  the  preparations 
are  not  relaxed,  and  they  are  constantly  enforced  by  the 
Central  Board  of  Health  (as  it  is  called),  which  is  established 
at  the  Council  Office,  and  labors  very  assiduously  in  the  cause. 
Undoubtedly  a  great  deal  of  good  will  be  done  in  the  way  of 
purification.  As  to  the  disorder,  if  it  had  not  the  name  of 
cholera  nobody  would  be  alarmed,  for  many  an  epidemic  has 
prevailed  at  different  times  far  more  fatal  than  this.  On  Fri- 
day last  we  dispatched  Dr.  Barry  down  to  Sunderland  with 
very  ample  powers,  and  to  procure  information,  which  it  is 
very  difficult  to  get.  Nothing  can  be  more  disgraceful  than 
24 


26  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVI 

the  state  of  that  town,  exhibiting  a  lamentable  proof  of  the 
practical  in  utility  of  that  diffusion  of  knowledge  and  education 
which  we  boast  of,  and  which  we  fancy  renders  us  so  morally 
and  intellectually  superior  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  When 
Dr.  Russell  was  in  Russia,  he  was  disgusted  with  the  violence 
and  prejudices  he  found  there  on  the  part  of  both  medical  men 
and  the  people,  and  he  says  he  finds  just  as  much  here.  The 
conduct  of  the  people  of  Sunderland  on  this  occasion  is  more 
suitable  to  the  barbarism  of  the  interior  of  Africa  than  to  a 
town  in  a  civilized  country.  The  medical  men  and  the  higher 
classes  are  split  into  parties,  quarreling  about  the  nature  of 
the  disease,  and  perverting  and  concealing  facts  which  militate 
against  their  respective  theories.  The  people  are  taught  to 
believe  that  there  is  no  cholera  at  all,  and  that  those  who  say  so 
intend  to  plunder  and  murder  them.  The  consequence  is  pro- 
digious irritation  and  excitement,  an  invincible  repugnance 
on  the  part  of  the  lower  orders  to  avail  themselves  of  any  of 
the  preparations  which  are  made  for  curing  them,  and  a 
proneness  to  believe  any  reports,  however  monstrous  and 
exaggerated.  In  a  very  curious  letter  which  was  received 
yesterday,  from  Dr.  Daur,  he  says  (after  complaining  of  the 
medical  men,  who  would  send  him  no  returns  of  the  cases  of 
sickness)  it  was  believed  that  bodies  had  been  dissected  be- 
fore the  life  was  out  of  them,  and  one  woman  was  said  to 
have  been  cut  up  while  she  was  begging  to  be  spared.  The 
consequence  of  this  is  that  we  have  put  forward  a  strong 
order  to  compel  medical  men  to  give  information,  and  another 
for  the  compulsory  removal  of  nuisances.  It  is,  however, 
rather  amusing  that  everybody  who  has  got  in  their  vicinity 
any  thing  disagreeable,  or  that  they  would  like  to  be  rid  of, 
thinks  that  now  is  their  time,  and  the  table  of  the  Board  of 
Health  is  covered  with  applications  of  this  nature  from  every 
variety  of  person  and  of  place. 

November  23d. — Dr.  Barry's  first  letter  from  Sunderland 
came  yesterday,  in  which  he  declares  the  identity  of  the  dis- 
ease with  the  cholera  he  had  seen  in  Russia.  He  describes 
some  cases  he  had  visited,  exhibiting  scenes  of  misery  and 
poverty  far  exceeding  what  one  could  have  believed  it  possible 
to  find  in  this  country;  but  we  who  float  on  the  surface  of 
society  know  but  little  of  the  privations  and  sufferings  which 
pervade  the  mass.  I  wrote  to  the  Bishop  of  Durham,  to  the 
chief  magistrates,  and  sent  down  £200  to  Colonel  Crcagh, 


1831.]  DISAPPOINTMENT.  27 

which  Althorp  immediately  advanced,  to  relieve  the  immedi- 
ate and  pressing  cases  of  distress. 

Saw  George  Bentinck  in  the  afternoon,  who  confirmed 
my .  apprehension  that  Wharncliffe  had  been  cajoled  into  a 
negotiation  which  Government  intended  should  end  by  get- 
ting all  they  want.  Richmond,  Grey,  and  Palmerston,  were 
in  a  minority  of  three  in  the  Cabinet  for  putting  off  the  meet- 
ing of  Parliament.  One  of  the  most  Radical  of  the  Cabinet 
is  Goderich.  Such  a  thing  it  is  to  be  of  feeble  intellect  and 
character,  and  yet  he  is  a  smart  speaker,  and  an  agreeable 
man.  The  moderate  party  are  Richmond,  who  cannot  have 
much  weight,  Stanley,  who  is  in  Ireland,  Lansdowne,  who  is 
always  "  gone  to  Bowood,"  Palmerston,  and  Melbourne.  Yet 
I  am  led  to  think  that  if  Wharncliffe  had  insisted  on  better 
conditions,  and  held  out,  he  would  have  got  them,  and  that 
the  Cabinet  were  really  disposed  to  make  all  the  concessions 
they  could  without  compromising  themselves.  The  meeting 
in  the  city  yesterday  was  a  total  failure.  Henry  Drummond, 
who  is  mad,  but  very  clever,  and  a  Reformer,  though  for 
saving  the  rotten  boroughs,  spoke  against  the  declaration, 
some  others  followed  him,  and  after  a  couple  of  hours  wasted 
in  vain  endeavors  to  procure  unanimity  the  meeting  broke  up, 
and  nothing  was  done.  I  saw  Wharncliffe  last  night,  who 
was  exceedingly  disappointed. 

November  28th. — The  negotiation  with  Wharncliffe  goes 
on  languidly;  he  wrote  to  Lord  Grey  the  other  day,  and  sug- 
gested some  heads  as  the  basis  of  an  accommodation,  consist- 
ing of  some  extension  of  Schedule  B,  excluding  town  voters 
from  county  voting,  and  one  or  two  other  points;  to  which 
Lord  Grey  replied  that  some  of  the  things  he  mentioned 
might  be  feasible,  but  that  there  would  be  great  difficulty 
about  others,  that  he  feared  nothing  might  come  of  their 
communications,  as  he  would  .not  hear  of  any  other  Peers 
who  were  disposed  to  go  along  with  him.  It  is  not  a  bad 
thing  that  they  should  each  be  impressed  with  a  salutary  ap- 
prehension, the  one  that  he  will  have  the  same  difficulties  to 
encounter  in  the  House  of  Lords,  the  other  that  nobody  will 
follow  him,  for  it  will  render  an  arrangement  more  probable 
than  if  they  both  thought  they  had  only  to  agree  together, 
and  that  the  rest  must  follow  as  a  matter  of  course.  The 
Duke  of  Wellington  has  written  again  to  Wharncliffe,  de- 
clining altogether  to  be  a  party  to  any  negotiation.  De  Ros 
told  me  that  he  never  saw  such  a  letter  as  Peel's — so  stiff, 


28  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

dry,  and  reserved,  just  like  the  man  in  whojn  great  talents 
are  so  counteracted  and  almost  made  mischievous  by  the 
effects  of  his  cold,  selfish,  calculating  character.  In  the 
mean  time  the  state  of  the  country  is  certainly  better,  the 
proclamation  putting1  down  the  unions  has  been  generally 
obeyed,  the  press  has  suspended  its  fury,  and  the  approach 
of  the  meeting  of  Parliament  seems  to  have  calmed  the 
country  to  a  great  degree.  The  event  most  to  be  desired 
is  that  the  Government  may  carry  their  bill  quietly  through 
the  House  of  Commons,  amendments  be  carried  in  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Lords,  and  upon  these  there  may  be 
a  compromise,  though  after  all  it  is  impossible  not  to  have 
a  secret  misgiving  that  the  alterations  which  appear  desira- 
ble may  prove  to  be  mischievous,  for  it  is  the  great  evil  of  the 
measure  that  being  certainly  new  no  human  being  can  guess 
how  it  will  work,  or  how  its  different  parts  will  act  upon  one 
another,  and  what  result  they  will  produce. 

There  seems  to  be  a  constant  sort  of  electrical  reciprocity 
of  effort  between  us  and  France  just  now.  The  three  days 
produced  much  of  our  political  excitement,  and  our  Bristol 
business  has  been  acted  with  great  similarity  of  circumstance 
at  Lyons,  and  is  still  going  on.  Talleyrand  produced  the 
Moniteur  last  night  with  the  account,  lamented  that  the  Due 
d'Orleans  had  been  sent  with  Marshal  Soult  to  Lyons,  which 
he  said  was  unnecessary  and  absurd,  that  Soult  was  the  best 
man  for  the  purpose  of  putting  it  down.  It  was  begun  by  the 
M'ork-people,  who  were  very  numerous,  not  political  in  its  ob- 
jects, but  the  cries  denoted  a  mixture  of  every  thing-,  as  they 
shouted  "  Henri  V.,  Napoleon  II. ,  La  R6publique,  and  Bristol." 
He  was  at  Lady  Holland's,  looking  very  cadaverous,  and  not 
very  talkative,  talked  of  Madame  du  Barri,  that  she  had  been 
very  handsome,  and  had  some  remains  of  beauty  up  to  the 
period  of  her  death  ;  of  Luckner,  who  was  guillotined,  and  as 
the  car  passed  on  the  people  cried  (as  they  used),  "A  la  guil- 
lotine !  a  la  guillotine ! "  Luckner  turned  round  and  said, 
"  On  y  va,  canaille." 

We  have  just  sent  a  commission  to  Paris  to  treat  with  the 
French  Government  about  a  commercial  treaty  on  the  princi- 
ples of  free  trade.  Poulett  Thomson,  who  has  been  at  Paris 
some  time,  has  originated  it,  and  Althorp  selected  George  Vil- 
liers  for  the  purpose,  but  has  added  to  him  as  a  colleague  Dr. 
Bowring,  who  has  in  fact  been  selected  by  Thomson,  a  the- 
orist, and  a  jobber,  deeply  implicated  in  the  "  Greek  Fire," 


1831.]  POULETT  THOMSON.  29 

and  a  Benthamite.  He  was  the  subject  of  a  cutting  satire  of 
Moore's,  beginning — 

The  ghost  of  Miltiades  came  by  night, 
And  stood  by  the  bed  of  the  Benthamite  ; 

but  he  has  been  at  Paris  some  time,  understanding  the  sub- 
ject, and  has  wound  himself  into  some  intimacy  with  the 
French  King  and  his  Ministers.  It  is,  however,  Poulett 
Thomson  who  has  persuaded  Althorp  to  appoint  him,  in  order 
to  have  a  creature  of  his  own  there. 

I  have  never  been  able  to  understand  the  enormous  unpopu- 
larity of  this  man,  who  appears  civil,  well-bred,  intelligent, 
and  agreeable  (only  rather  a  coxcomb),  and  has  made  a  certain 
figure  in  the  House  of  Commons,  but  it  has  been  explained  to 
me  by  a  person  who  knows  him  well.  He  was  origin-ally  a 
merchant,  and  had  a  quantity  of  counting-house  knowledge. 
He  became  member  of  a  club  of  political  economists,  and  a 
scholar  of  M'Culloch's.  In  this  club  there  were  some  obscure 
but  very  able  men,  and  by  them  he  got  crammed  with  the 
principles  of  commerce  and  political  economy,  and  from  his 
mercantile  connections  he  got  facts.  He  possessed  great  in- 
dustry and  sufficient  ability  to  work  up  the  materials  he  thus 
acquired  into  a  very  plausible  exhibition  of  knowledge  upon 
these  subjects,  and  having  opportunities  of  preparing  himself 
for  every  particular  question,  and  the  advantage  of  addressing 
an  audience  the  greater  part  of  which  is  profoundly  ignorant, 
he  passed  for  a  young  gentleman  of  extraordinary  ability  and 
profound  knowledge,  and  among  the  greatest  of  his  admirers 
was  Althorp,  who,  when  the  Whigs  came  in,  promoted  him  to 
his  present  situation.  Since  he  has  been  there  he  has  not  had 
the  same  opportunities  of  learning  his  lesson  from  others  be- 
hind the  curtain,  and  the  envy  which  always  attends  success 
has  delighted  to  pull  down  his  reputation,  so  that  he  now  ap- 
pears something  like  the  jackdaw  stripped  of  the  peacock's 
feathers. 

November  30th. — Went  to  breakfast  at  the  Tower,  which 
I  had  never  seen.  Dined  with  Lady  Holland,  first  time  for 
seven  }rears,  finished  the  quarrel,  and  the  last  of  that  batch ; 
they  should  not  last  forever.  In  the  morning  Wharncliffe 
came  to  me  from  Lord  Grey's,  with  whom  he  had  had  a  final 
interview.  He  showed  me  the  paper  he  gave  Grey  contain- 
ing his  proposals,  which  were  nearly  to  this  effect :  conceding 
what  the  Government  required,  with  these  exceptions  and 


30  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

counter-concessions,  an  alteration  in  Schedule  B  with  a  view 
to  preserve  in  many  cases  the  two  members;  that  voters 
for  the  great  manufacturing  towns  should  have  votes  for 
the  counties ;  that  London  districts  should  not  have  so 
many  representatives ;  that  when  the  franchise  was  given 
to  great  manufacturing  towns,  their  county  should  not  have 
more  representatives ;  that  corporate  rights  should  be  saved, 
though  with  an  infusion  of  £10  voters  where  required ;  that 
Cheltenham  and  Brighton  (particularly)  should  have  no 
jnembers.  These  were  the  principal  heads,  proposed  in  a 
paper  of  moderate  length  and  civil  expression.  Grey  said 
the  terms  were  inadmissible,  that  some  parts  of  his  proposal 
might  be  feasible,  but  the  points  on  which  Wharncliffe  most 
insisted  (London,  and  town  and  county  voting)  he  could 
not  agree  to.  So  with  many  expressions  of  civility  and 
mutual  esteem  they  parted.  He  is  disappointed,  but  not  de- 
jected, and  I  tried  to  persuade  him  that  an  arrangement  on 
this  basis  is  not  less  probable  than  it  was. 

The  fact  is  it  would  have  been  nearly  impossible  for 
Government  to  introduce  a  Bill  so  different  from  the  first  as 
these  changes  would  have  made  it,  as  the  result  of  a  negotia- 
tion. They  would  have  been  exposed  to  great  obloquy,  and 
have  had  innumerable  difficulties  to  encounter,  but  if  the  Bill 
goes  into  a  Committee  of  the  Lords,  and  the  other  clauses 
pass  without  opposition,  the  Government  may  not  think 
themselves  obliged  to  contest  these  alterations.  I  think  the 
Government  would  accept  them,  and  probably  they  feel  that 
in  no  other  way  could  they  do  so.  It  seems  to  me  that  the 
success  of  these  amendments  depends  now  very  much  upon 
the  Opposition  themselves,  upon  their  firmness,  their  union, 
and  above  all  their  reasonableness.  Saw  Talleyrand  last 
night,  who  said  they  had  better  news  from  Lyons,  that  there 
was  nothing  political  in  it.  News  came  yesterday  morning 
that  the  cholera  had  broken  out  at  Marseilles. 

December  3d. — Wharncliffe  showed  me  his  correspond- 
ence with  the  Duke  of  Wellington  on  this  negotiation. 
The}'-  differed  greatly,  but  amicably  enough,  though  I  take 
it  he  was  not  very  well  pleased  with  Wharncliffe's  last  letter, 
in  which  he  distinctly  told  the  Duke  that  his  speech  on  the 
Address,  and  declaration  against  any  Reform,  was  what  over- 
threw his  Government.  This  he  never  will  admit,  and,  pass- 
ing over  the  proximate  cause,  always  refers  his  fall  to  (what 
was  certainly  the  remote  cause)  the  Catholic  question — that 


1831.]  .  WIIARNCLIFFE  FOR  CONCESSION.  31 

is,  to  the  breaking  up  of  the  Tory  party  which  followed  it, 
and  the  union  of  the  old  Tories  with  the  Whigs  and  Radicals 
on  purpose  to  turn  him  out.  In  this  correspondence  Wharn- 
clifie  has  much  the  best  of  it,  and  I  was  surprised  to  find 
with  what  tenacity  the  Duke  clings  to  his  cherished  preju- 
dices, and  how  he  shuts  his  eyes  to  the  signs  of  the  times 
and  the  real  state  of  the  country.  With  the  point  at  is- 
sue he  never  would  grapple.  Wharucliffe  argued  for  con- 
cession, because  they  have  not  the  means  of  resistance,  and 
that  they  are  in  fact  at  the  mercy  of  their  opponents.  The 
Duke  admitted  the  force  against  them,  but  thought  it  would 
be  possible  to  govern  the  country  without  Reform  "  if  the 
King  was  not  against  them  " — an  important  increment  of 
his  conditions ;  there  is  no  doubt  that  "  the  King's  name  is 
a  tower  of  strength,  which  they  upon  the  adverse  faction 
want r' — and  he  continued  through  all  his  letters  arguing  the 
question  on  its  abstract  merits,  and  repeating  the  topic  that 
had  been  over  and  over  again  urged,  but  without  reference  to 
the  actual  state  of  things  and  the  means  of  resistance.  It 
seems,  however,  pretty  clear  that  he  will  oppose  this  Bill  just 
as  he  did  the  last,  and  he  will  probably  have  a  great  many 
followers ;  but  the  party  is  broken  up,  for  Wharncliffe  and 
Harrow  by  will  vote  for  the  second  reading;  the  bishops  will 
generallv  go  with  them,  and  probably  a  sufficient  number  of 
Peers.  If  Lord  Grey  can  see  a  reasonable  chance  of  carrying 
the  Bill  without  making  Peers,  there  can  be  very  little  doubt 
he  will  put  off  that  resource  till  the  last  moment. 

December  kth, — Dined  with  Talleyrand  yesterday.  He 
complained  to  me  of  Durham's  return,  and  of  "sa  funeste  in- 
fluence sur  Lord  Grey : "  that  because  he  had  been  at 
Brussels  and  at  Paris,  he  fancied  nobody  but  himself  knew 
any  thing  of  foreign  affairs ;  he  praised  Palmerston  highly. 
In  the  evening  to  Lady  Harrowby,  who  told  me  John 
Russell  had  been  with  her,  all  moderation  and  candor,  and 
evidently  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  alive  the  amicable  re- 
lations which  had  been  begun  by  WharnclLffe's  negotiation. 
When  Lady  Harrowby  said  it  was  over,  he  replied,  "  For  the 
present,"  said  how  glad  he  should  be  of  a  compromise,  hinted 
that  Sandon  migjit  be  instrumental,  that  he  might  move  an 
amendment  in  the  House  of  Commons  ;  abused  Macaulay's 
violent  speech — in  short,  was  all  mild  and  doucereux — all 
which  proves  that  they  do  wish  to  compromise  if  they  could 
manage  it  conveniently.  Lord  John  Russell  told  her  that  there 


32  EEIGN  OP  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAB.  XVI. 

was  no  going  on  with  Durham,  that  he  never  left  Lord  Grey, 
tormented  his  heart  out,  and  made  him  so  ill  and  irritable 
that  he  could  not  sleep.  Durham  wanted  to  be  Minister  for 
Foreign  Affairs. 

December  1th. — Parliament  opened  yesterday  ;  not  a  bad 
speech,  though  wordy  and  ill-written.  There  was  an  over- 
sight in  the  Address,  which  was  corrected  in  both  Houses  by 
Peel  and  Lord  Harrowby,  but  not  taken  as  an  amendment. 
Lord  Grey  begged  it  might  be  inserted  in  Lord  Camperdown's 
address,  which  was  done.  It  was  about  the  King  of  Hol- 
land and  the  treaty.  The  Address  says  that  they  rejoice  at 
the  treaty,  whereas  there  is  none  at  present.  Lord  Lyttelton 
made  a  very  foolish  speech,  and  was  very  well  cut  up  by 
Lord  Harrowby,  and  Peel  spoke  well  in  the  other  House. 

December  8th. — At  Court  yesterday  to  swear  in  Erskine,1 
Brougham's  new  Chief  Judge  in  Bankruptcy  and  Privy 
Councilor.  The  Chancellor  is  in  a  great  rage  with  me.  There 
is  an  appeal  to  the  Privy  Council  from  a  judgment  of  his 
(in  which  he  was  wrong),  the  first  appeal  of  the  kind  for  above 
a  hundred  years  ;2  I  told  him  it  was  ready  to  be  heard,  and 
begged  to  know  if  he  had  any  wish  as  to  who  should  be 
summoned  to  hear  it.  He  said  very  tartly,  "  Of  course  I  shall 
have  somebody  to  hear  it  with  me."  I  said,  "  Do  you  mean 
to  hear  it  yourself,  then  ?  "  "  And  pray  why  not  ?  don't  I  hear 
appeals  from  myself  every  day  in  the  House  of  Lords  ?  didn't 
you  see  that  I  could  not  hear  a  case  the  other  day  because 
Lord  Lyndhurst  was  not  there  ?  I  have  a  right  to  hear  it. 
I  sit  there  as  a  Privy  Councilor."  "  Oh,"  I  said,  "  you  have 
certainly  a  right  if  you  choose  it."  "  You  may  rely  upon  it  I 
shall  do  nothing  unusual  in  the  Privy  Council,"  and  then  he 
flounced  off  in  high  dudgeon.  I  told  Lord  Lansdowne  after- 
ward, who  said  he  should  not  allow  it  to  be  heard  by  him, 
and  should  make  a  point  of  summoning  all  the  great  law 
authorities  of  the  Privy  Council.  This  was  the  case  of 
Drax  vs.  Grosvenor,  which  excited  great  interest,  in  which 
Brougham  tried  to  play  all  sorts  of  tricks  to  prevent  his 
judgment  being  reversed,  which  tricks  I  managed  to  de- 
feat, and  the  judgment  was  reversed,  as  is  described  further 
on.  I  never  had  the  advantage  of  seeing  the  Chancellor 

1  [Eight  Hon.  Thomas  Erskine,  a  son  of  Lord-Chancellor  Erskine,  Chief 
Judge  in  Bankruptcy,  and  afterward  a  Justice  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas.] 

s  [It  was  an  Appeal  in  Lunacy.  No  other  appeals  save  in  Lunacy  lie  from 
the  Court  of  Chancery  to  the  King  in  Council,  and  these  are  very  rare.  Drax 
vs.  Grosvenor  is  reported  in  Knapp's  "  Privy  Council  Reports."] 


1831.]  THE   SECOND   REFORM   BILL.  33 

before  in  his  sulks,  though  he  is  by  no  means  unfrequently 
in  them,  very  particularly  so  this  time  last  year,  when  he 
was  revolving  in  his  mind  whether  he  should  take  the  Great 
Seal,  and  when  he  thought  he  was  ill-used,  so  Auckland  told 
me. 

The  cholera  is  on  the  decline  at  Sunderland,  but  in  the 
mean  time  our  trade  will  have  been  put  under  such  restric- 
tions that  the  greatest  embarrassments  are  inevitable.  In- 
telligence is  already  come  that  the  Manchester  people  have 
curtailed  their  orders,  and  many  workmen  will  be  out  of 
work.  Yesterday  a  deputation  from  Coventry  came  to 
Auckland,  and  desired  a  categorical  answer  as  to  whether 
Government  meant  to  resume  the  prohibitory  system,  because 
if  they  would  not,  the  glove-trade  at  Coventry  would  dis- 
charge their  workmen. 

December  \\th. — Yesterday  Harrowby  had  an  interview 
with  Lord  Grey,  the  result  of  which  I  do  not  know  ;  walked 
with  Stuart  (de  Rothesay)  in  the  morning,  who  had  seen  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  the  day  before.  I  said  I  was  afraid  he 
was  very  obstinate.  He  said,  "  No,  he  thought  not,  but  that 
the  Duke  fancied  Wharncliffe  had  gone  too  far." 

To-morrow  the  Reform  Bill  comes  on.  Some  say  that  it 
will  be  as  hotly  disputed  as  ever,  and  that  Peel's  speeches  in- 
dicate a  bitterness  undiminished,  but  this  will  not  happen.  It 
is  clear  that  the  general  tone  and  temper  of  parties  is  softened, 
and  though  a  great  deal  of  management  and  discretion  is 
necessary  to  approach  any  thing  like  a  decent  compromise, 
the  majority  of  both  parties  are  earnestly  desirous  of  bringing 
the  business  to  an  end  by  any  means.  What  has  already 
taken  place  between  the  Government  and  Wharncliffe  and 
Harrowby  has  certainly  smoothed  the  way,  and  removed  much 
of  that  feeling  of  asperity  which  before  existed.  The  press, 
too,  is  less  violent,  the  Morning  Herald  openly  preaching  a 
compromise,  and  the  Times  taking  that  sort  of  sweep  which, 
if  it  does  not  indicate  a  change,  shows  a  disposition  to  take 
such  a  position  as  may  enable  it  to  adopt  any  course. 

In  the  evening. — Called  on  Lord  Bathurst  in  the  morning ; 
met  him  going  out,  and  stopped  to  talk  to  him.  He  knew  of 
the  meeting  in  Downing  Street ;  that  Lords  Harrowby,  Wharn- 
cliffe, and  Chandos,  were  to  meet  the  Chancellor  and  Lords 
Althorp  and  Grey ;  that  Chandos  had  gone  to  Brighton,  osten- 
sibly to  talk  to  the  King  about  the  West  Indies,  but -had 
taker,  the  opportunity  to  thro-.v  in  something  on  the  topic  of 


34  REIGN  OP  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

Reform;  that  the  King  desired  him  to  speak  to  Palmerston, 
and  allowed  him  to  say  that  he  did  so  by  his  orders.  (The 
King,  it  seems,  knows  nothing  of  what  is  going  on,  for  he 
reads  no  newspapers  and  the  Household  tell  him  nothing.) 
Accordingly  Chandos  did  speak  to  Palmerston,  and  the  re- 
sult was  a  note  to  him,  begging  these  three  would  meet  the 
three  Ministers  above  mentioned.  .Lady  Harrowby  told  me 
that  they  went.  Brougham  did  not  arrive  till  the  conference 
was  nearly  over.  There  was  an  abundant  interchange  of 
civilities,  but  nothing  concluded,  the  Ministers  declining  every 
proposition  that  Lord  Harrowby  made  to  them,  though  Lord 
Grey  owned  that  they  did  not  ask  for  any  thing  which  in- 
volved an  abandonment  of  the  principle  of  the  Bill.  They 
are,  then,  not  a  bit  nearer  an  accommodation  than  they  were 
before. 

George  Bentinck  told  me  this  evening  of  a  scene  which  had 
been  related  to  him  by  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  that  lately  took 
place  at  a  Cabinet  dinner ;  it  was  very  soon  after  Durham's 
return  from  abroad.  He  was  furious  at  the  negotiations  and 
question  of  compromise.  Lord  Grey  is  always  the  object  of 
his  rage  and  impertinence,  because  he  is  the  only  person  whom 
he  dares  attack.  After  dinner  he  made  a  violent  sortie  on 
Lord  Grey  (it  was  at  Althorp's),  said  he  would  be  eternally 
disgraced  if  he  suffered  any  alterations  to  be  made  in  this 
Bill,  that  he  was  a  betrayer  of  the  cause,  and,  among  other 
things,  reproached  him  with  having  kept  him  in  town  on  ac- 
count of  this  Bill  in  the  summer,  "and  thereby  having  been 
the  cause  of  the  death  of  his  son."  Richmond  said  in  his  life 
he  never  witnessed  so  painful  a  scene,  or  one  which  excited 
such  disgust  and  indignation  in  every  member  of  the  Cabinet. 
Lord  Grey  was  ready  to  burst  into  tears,  said  he  would  much 
rather  work  in  the  coal-mines  than  be  subject  to  such  attacks, 
on  which  the  other  muttered,  "  and  you  might  do  worse,"  or 
some  such  words.  After  this  Durham  got  up  and  left  the 
room.  Lord  Grey  very  soon  retired  too,  when  the  other  Min- 
isters discussed  this  extraordinary  scene,  and  considered  what 
steps  they  ought  to  take.  They  thought  at  first  that  they 
should  require  Durham  to  make  a  public  apology  (i.  e.,  before 
all  of  them)  to  Lord  Grey  for  his  impertinence,  which  they 
deemed  due  to  them  as  he  was  their  head,  and  to  Althorp  as 
having  occurred  in  his  house,  but  as  they  thought  it  was  quite 
certain  that  Durham  would  resign  the  next  morning,  and  that 
Lord  Grey  might  be  pained  at  another  scene,  they  forbore  to 


1831.]  CONFESSION  OF  A  BODY-SNATCHER,  35 

exact  this.  However,  Durham  did  not  resign ;  he  absented 
himself  for  some  days  from  the  Cabinet,  at  last  returned  as  if 
nothing  had  happened,  and  there  he  goes  on  as  usual.  But 
they  are  so  thoroughly  disgusted,  and  resolved  to  oppose  him, 
that  his  influence  is  greatly  impaired.  Still,  his  power  of 
mischief  and  annoyance  is  considerable.  Lord  Grey  succumbs 
to  him,  and  they  say  in  spite  of  his  behavior  is  very  much  at- 
tached to  him,  though  so  incessantly  worried  that  his  health 
visibly  suffers  by  his  presence.  There  is  nothing  in  which  he 
does  not  meddle.  The  Reform  Bill  he  had  a  principal  hand  in 
concocting,  and  he  fancies  himself  the  only  man  competent  to 
manage  our  foreign  relations.  Melbourne,  who  was  present 
at  this  scene,  said,  "  If  I  had  been  Lord  Grey,  I  would  have 
knocked  him  down." 

December  13th. — Lord  John  Russell  brought  on  his  Bill 
last  night  in  a  very  feeble  speech.  A  great  change  is  appar- 
ent since  the  last  Bill ;  the  House  was  less  full,  and  a  softened 
and  subdued  state  of  temper  and  feeling  was  evinced.  Peel 
made  an  able  and  a  bitter  speech,  though  perhaps  not  a  very 
judicious  one.  There  are  various  alterations  in  the  Bill ; 
enough  to  prove  that  it  was  at  least  wise  to  throw  out  the 
last.  Althorp,  who  answered  Peel,  acknowledged  that  if  the 
old  Bill  had  been  opposed  in  its  earliest  stage,  it  never  could 
have  been  brought  forward  again,  or  made  an  avowal  to  that 
effect.  In  fact,  Peel  is  now  aware  (as  everybody  else  is)  of 
the  enormous  fault  that  was  committed  in  not  throwing  it 
out  at  once,  before  the  press  had  time  to  operate,  and  rouse 
the  country  to  the  pitch  of  madness  it  did.  On  what  trifles 
turn  the  destinies  of  nations  !  William  Bankes  told  me  last 
night  that  Peel  owned  this  to  him  ;  said  that  he  had  earnestly 
desired  to  do  so,  but  had  been  turned  from  his  purpose  by 
Granville  Somerset !  And  why  ?  Because  he  (in  the  expecta- 
tion of  a  dissolution)  must  have  voted  against  him,  he  said,  in 
order  to  save  his  popularity  in  his  own  county. 

Met  Melbourne  at  Lord  Holland's ;  they  were  talking  of  a 
reported  confession  to  a  great  extent  of  murders,  which  is 
said  to  have  been  begun  and  not  finished,  by  the  Burkers,  or 
by  one  of  them.  Melbourne  said  it  was  true,  that  he  began 
the  confession  about  the  murder  of  a  black  man  to  a  Dissent- 
ing clergyman,  but  was  interrupted  by  the  ordinary.  Two  of 
a  trade  could  not  agree,  and  the  man  of  the  Established 
Church  preferred  that  the  criminal  should  die  unconfessed, 
and  the  public  uninformed,  rather  than  the  Dissenter  should 


36  EEIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

extract  the  truth.  Since  writing  this,  I  see  Hunt  put  a  ques- 
tion to  George  Lamb  on  this  point,  and  he  replied  that  he 
knew  nothing  of  any  other  confession,  which  is  not  true.  I 
have  heard,  but  on  no  authority,  that  some  surgeons  are 
so  disagreeably  implicated  that  they  choose  to  conceal  these 
horrors. 

December  14£A. — People  generally  are  mightily  satisfied 
at  the  tone  of  the  discussion  the  other  night,  and,  what  is  of 
vast  importance,  the  press  has  adopted  a  moderate  and  con- 
ciliatory tone,  even  the  Times,  which  is  now  all  for  compro- 
mise. It  is  clear  as  daylight  that  the  Government  will  consent 
to  any  thing  which  leaves  untouched  the  great  principles  of 
the  Bill,  and  the  country  desires  to  see  the  question  settled, 
and,  if  possible,  rest  from  this  eternal  excitement. 

December  20th. — The  second  reading  of  the  Reform  Bill 
was  carried  at  one  o'clock  on  Saturday  night  by  a  majority  of 
two  to  one,  and  ended  very  triumphantly  for  Ministers,  who 
are  proportionately  elated,  and  their  opponents  equally  de- 
pressed. Croker  had  made  a  very  clever  speech  on  Friday, 
with  quotations  from  Hume,  and  much  reasoning  upon  them. 
Hobhouse  detected  several  inaccuracies,  and  gave  his  discov- 
ery to  Stanley  who  worked  it  up  in  a  crushing  attack  upon 
Croker.  It  is  by  far  the  best  speech  Stanley  ever  made,  arid 
so  good  as  to  raise  him  immeasurably  in  the  House.  Lord 
Grey  said  it  placed  him  at  the  very  top  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, without  a  rival,  which  perhaps  is  jumping  to  rather  too 
hasty  a  conclusion.  He  shone  the  more  from  Peel's  making  a 
very  poor  exhibition.  He  had  been  so  nettled  by  Macaulay's 
sarcasms  the  night  before  on  his  tergiversation,  that  he  went 
into  the  whole  history  of  the  Catholic  question  and  his  con- 
duct on  that  occasion,  which,  besides  savoring  of  that  egotism 
with  which  he  is  so  much  and  justly  reproached,  was  uncalled 
for  and  out  of  place.  The  rest  of  his  speech  was  not  so  good 
as  usual,  and  he  did  not  attempt  to  answer  Stanley. 

1832. 

Panslianger^  January  1st. — Distress  seems  to  increase 
hereabouts,  and  crime  with  it.  Methodism  and  saintship 
increase  too.  The  people  of  this  house  are  examples  of  the 
religion  of  the  fashionable  world,  and  the  charity  of  natural 
benevolence,  which  the  world  has  not  spoiled.  Lady  Cowper 
and  her  family  go  to  church,  but  scandalize  the  congregation 


18S2.]  PANSHANGEB.  37 

by  always  arriving  half  an  hour  too  late.  The  hour  matters 
not ;  if  it  began  at  nine,  or  ten,  or  twelve,  or  one  o'clock,  it 
would  be  the  same  thing ;  they  are  never  ready,  and  always 
late,  but  they  go.  Lord  Cowper  never  goes  at  all ;  but  ke  em- 
ploys multitudes  of  laborers,  is  ready  to  sanction  any  and  every 
measure  which  can  contribute  to  the  comfort  and  happiness 
of  the  peasantry.  Lady  Cowper  and  her  daughters  inspect 
personally  the  cottages  and  condition  of  the  poor.  They  visit, 
inquire,  and  give ;  they  distribute  flannel,  medicines,  money, 
and  they  talk  to  and  are  kind  to  them,  so  that  the  result  is  a 
perpetual  stream  flowing  from  a  real  fountain  of  benevo- 
lence, which  waters  all  the  country  round  and  gladdens  the 
hearts  of  the  peasantry,  and  attaches  them  to  those  from  whom 
it  emanates. 

Panshanger,  January  Qth.  — Talleyrand,  Dino,  Palmer- 
ston,  Esterhazy,  came  yesterday  and  went  away  to-day — that 
is,  the  two  first  and  the  Seftons  did.  There  has  been  another 
contest  in  the  Cabinet  about  the  Peers,  which  has  ended  in  a 
sort  of  compromise,  and  five  are  to  be  made  directly,  two  new 
ones  and  three  eldest  sons  called  up.  Old  Talleyrand  came 
half-dead  from  the  conferences,  which  have  been  incessant 
these  few  days,  owing  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia's  refusal  to 
ratify  the  treaty  and  the  differences  about  the  Belgian  fortress- 
es. One  conference  lasted  eleven  hours  and  a  quarter,  and 
finished  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning. 

Gorhambury,  January  1!th. — Came  here  to-dav.  Berkeley 
Paget  and  Lushington ;  nobody  else.  Had  a  conversation 
with  Lady  C.  before  I  came  away ;  between  Palmerston, 
Frederick  Lamb,  and  Melbourne,  she  knows  every  thing,  and 
is  a  furious  anti-Reformer.  The  upshot  of  the  matter  is  this : 
The  question  about  the  Peers  is  still  under  discussion ;  Lord 
Grey  and  the  ultra  party  want  to  make  a  dozen  now,  the 
others  want  only  to  yield  five  or  six.  Lord  Grey  wrote  to 
Palmerston  saying  the  King  had  received  his  proposition 
(about  the  Peers)  very  well,  but  desired  to  have  his  reasons 
in  writing,  and  to-day  at  twelve  there  was  to  be  another 
Cabinet  on  the  subject,  in  order  probably  that  the  "  reasons  " 
might  go  down  by  the  post.  The  moderate  party  in  the 
Cabinet  consists  of  Lansdowne,  Richmond,  Palmerston, 
Melbourne,  and  Stanley.  Palmerston  and  Melbourne,  par- 
ticularly the  latter,  are  now  heartily  ashamed  of  the  part 
they  have  taken  about  Reform.  They  detest  and  abhor  the 
whole  thing,  and  they  find  themselves  unable  to  cope  with 


64040 


38  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

the  violent  party,  and  consequently  implicated  in  a  continued 
series  of  measures  which  they  disapprove ;  and  they  do  not 
know  what  to  do,  whether  to  stay  in  and  fight  this  unequal 
battle  or  resign.     I  told  her  that  nothing  could  justify  their 
conduct,  and  their  excuses  were  good  for  nothing ;  but  that 
there  was  no  use  in  resigning  now.     They  might  still  do 
some  good  in  the  Cabinet;  they  could  do  none  out  of  it.     In 
fact,  Durham  and  the  most  violent  members  of  the  Cabinet 
would  gladly  drive  Palmerston  and  Melbourne  to  resign  if 
they  could  keep  Stanley,  who  is  alone  of  importance  of  that 
squad ;  but  he  is  of  such  weight,  from  his  position  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  that  if  he  can  be  prevailed  upon  to  be  stanch, 
and  to  hold  out  with  the  moderates  against  the  ultras,  the 
former  will  probably  prevail.     Durham  wants  to  be  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs,  and  would  plague  Lord  Grey  till  he  gave 
him  the  seals,  unless  his  other  colleagues  put  a  veto  upon  the 
appointment.    But  the  anxiety  of  the  Reformers  to  make  Peers 
has  not  reference  to  the  Reform  Bill  alone;  they  undoubtedly 
look  further,  and  knowing  their  own  weakness  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  they  want  to  secure  a  permanent  force,  which  may 
make  them  stronger  than  their  antagonists    in    that  House. 
Otherwise  they  would  not  be  so  averse  to  all  questions  of 
conciliation,    express    their    disbelief     in    conversions,    and 
trumpet  forth    their  conviction    that    any  individual  of    the 
late  majority  will  vote  just  the  same  way  again.     The  earnest 
desire  of  the  moderate  party  in  the  Cabinet  is  that  those  who 
will  vote  for  the  second  reading  shall  make  haste  to  declare 
their  intention,  and  I  have  written  to  Lady  Harrowby  to 
endeavor  to  get  Lord  Harrowby  to  take  some  such  step.     I 
had   already  written   to   De   Ros,   urging   him  to  speak  to 
Wharncliffe,  and  get  him  to  take  an  opportunity  of  giving 
the  King  to  understand  that  the  necessity  for  a  creation  of 
Peers  is  by  no  means  so  urgent  as  his  Ministers  would  have 
him  believe. 

fanshanffer,  January  13th. — Returned  here  yesterday  ; 
found  Melbourne,  Lamb,  the  Lievens,  the  Haddingtons,  Lut- 
trell,  the  Ashleys,  John  Ashley,  and  Irby.  While  I  was  at 
Gorhambury  I  determined  to  write  to  Wharncliffe  and  urge; 
him  to  speak  to  the  King,  and  accordingly  I  did  so.  I  received 
a  letter  from  him  saying  that  De  Ros  had  already  spoken  to 
him,  that  he  had  had  a  conversation  with  Sir  Herbert  Taylor, 
which  he  had  desired  him  to  repeat  to  the  King  and  to  Lord 
Grey,  that  he  had  intended  to  leave  the  matter  there,  but  in 


1832.]  A  DISPUTE  IN  THE  CABINET.  39 

consequence  of  my  letter  he  should  ask  for  an  audience. 
This  morning  I  have  heard  again  from  him.  He  saw  the 
King,  and  was  with  him  an  hour  ;  put  his  Majesty  in  pos- 
session of  his  sentiments,  and  told  him  there  would  be  no 
necessity  for  creating  Peers  if  the  Government  would  be 
conciliatory  and  moderate  in  the  Committee  of  the  House  of 
Commons  ;  he  promised  to  tell  me  the  particulars  of  this 
interview  when  we  meet. 

Last  night  Frederick  Lamb  told  me  that  Lord  Grey  had 
sent  word  to  Melbourne  of  what  Wharncliffe  had  said  to  Sir 
Herbert  Taylor,  and  Lord  Grey  assumed  the  tenor  of  Wharn- 
cliffe's  language  to  have  been  merely  an  advice  to  the  King 
not  to  make  Peers,  whereas  all  I  suggested  to  him  was  to 
explain  to  the  King  that  the  creation  was  not  necessary  for 
the  reasons  which  have  been  assigned  to  his  Majesty  by  his 
Ministers,  viz.,  the  intention  of  all  who  voted  against  the 
second  reading  last  year  to  vote  against  it  this.  In  the  mean 
time  the  dispute  has  been  going  on  in  the  Cabinet,  time  has 
been  gained,  and  several  incidents  have  made  a  sort  of  cumu- 
lative impression.  There  is  a  petition  to  the  King,  got  up  by 
Lord  Verulam  and  Lord  Salisbury,  which  is  in  fact  a  mod- 
erate Reform  manifesto.  It  has  been  numerously  signed,  and 
Verulam  is  going  to  Brighton  to  present  it.  I  have  been 
laboring  to  persuade  him  to  make  up  his  mind  to  vote  for  the 
second  reading,  and  to  tell  the  King  that  such  is  his  inten- 
tion, which  he  has  promised  me  he  will.  When  I  had  ob- 
tained this  promise  from  him,  I  wrote  word  to  Lady  Cowper, 
telling  her  at  the  same  time  that  Lord  Harris  (I  had  heard) 
would  vote  for  the  second  reading,  and  this  letter  she  im- 
parted to  Melbourne,  who  stated  the  fact  in  the  Cabinet, 
where  it  made  a  considerable  impression.  All  such  circum- 
stances serve  to  supply  arms  to  the  moderate  party. 

This  morning  Melbourne  went  up  to  another  Cabinet, 
armed  with  another  fact  with  which  I  supplied  him.  Lord 
Craven  declared  at  his  own  table  that  if  the  Government 
made  Peers  he  would  not  vote  with  them,  and  if  he  was  sent 
for  he  should  reply  that,  as  they  could  create  Peers  so  easily, 
they  might  do  without  him.  All  such  circumstances  as  these, 
I  find,  are  considered  of  great  importance,  and  are  made 
available  for  the  purpose  of  fighting  the  battle  in  the  Cabi- 
net. As  to  Lord  Grey,  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  under- 
stand his  real  sentiments,  and  to  reconcile  his  present  conduct 
with  the  general  tenor  of  his  former  professions  ;  that  he  was 


40  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

averse  to  the  adoption  of  so  violent  a  measure  I  have  no 
doubt — his  pride  and  aristocratic  principles  would  naturally 
make  him  so — but  he  is  easily  governed,  constantly  yielding 
to  violence  and  intimidation,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the 
pertinacity  of  those  about  him,  the  interests  of  his  party,  and 
the  prolongation  of  his  power  may  induce  him  to  sacrifice  his 
natural  feelings  and  opinions.  It  is  very  probable  that, 
although  he  may  have  allowed  himself  to  be  at  the  head  of 
those  who  are  for  the  creation,  he  may  have  such  misgivings 
and  scruples  as  may  prevent  his  carrying  that  point  with  the 
high  hand  and  in  the  summary  way  which  he  might  do. 

January  15th. — This  morning  Frederick  Lamb  showed  me 
a  letter  he  had  got  from  Melbourne  to  this  effect :  "  That  they 
had  resolved  to  make  no  Peers  at  all  at  present ;  that  to 
make  a  few  would  be  regarded  as  a  menace,  and  be  as  bad  as 
if  they  made  a  great  many ;  but  that  as  many  as  would  be 
necessary  to  carry  the  Bill  would  be  made,  if  it  was  eventually 
found  that  it  must  be  so  ; "  he  added,  "  it  only  remained  for 
people  to  come  forward  and  declare  their  intention  of  support- 
ing the  second  reading."  This  is  certainly  a  great  victory, 
and  1  do  believe  mainly  attributable  to  our  exertions,  to  the 
spirit  we  have  infused  into  Melbourne  himself,  and  the  use  we 
have  made  of  Wharncliffe  and  Verulam,  and  the  different  little 
circumstances  we  have  brought  to  bear  upon  the  discussion. 
What  now  remains  is  the  most  difficult,  but  I  shall  do  all  I  can 
to  engage  Peers  to  take  a  moderate  determination  and  to  de- 
clare it.  Lamb  told  me  that  the  King  has  an  aversion  to 
making  a  few  Peers,  that  he  has  said  he  would  rather  make 
twenty-five  than  five,  that  whatever  he  must  make  he  should 
like  to  make  at  once,  and  not  to  have  to  return  to  it.  Any- 
how, time  is  gained,  and  a  victory  for  the  moment. 

London^  January  20th. — Came  up  on  Monday  last.  I 
have  been  changing  my  house,  and  so  occupied  that  I  have 
not  had  time  to  write.  Wharncliffe  came  to  town  on  Wednes- 
day, and  came  straight  to  my  office  to  give  me  an  account  of 
his  interview  with  the  King,  in  which  it  appears  as  if  he  had 
said  much  about  what  he  ought,  and  no  more.  Pie  told  his 
Majesty  that  the  reports  which  had  been  circulated  as  to  the 
disposition  and  intentions  of  himself  and  his  friends,  and  the 
argument  for  the  necessity  of  making  Peers,  which  he  under- 
stood to  have  been  founded  on  these  reports,  had  compelled 
him  to  ask  for  this  audience,  that  he  wished  to  explain  to  his 
Majesty  that  he  (Lord  Wharncliffe)  had  no  intention  of  op- 


1832.]        OBSTINACY   OF   TUB   DUKE   OF  WELLINGTON.  41 

posing  the  second  reading  of  the  Reform  Bill  as  he  had  done 
before,  that  he  had  reason  to  believe  that  many  others  would 
adopt  the  same  course,  and  if  Ministers  showed  a  moderate 
and  conciliating  disposition  in  the  House  of  Commons,  he 
was  persuaded  they  would  have  no  difficulty  in  carrying  the 
second  reading  in  the  House  of  Lords.  He  then  implored  the 
King  well  to  consider  the  consequences  of  the  coi/p  tf'etat  as 
this  creation  of  Peers  would  be  ;  to  look  at  what  had  happened 
in  France,  and  to  bear  in  mind  that  if  this  was  done  for  one 
purpose,  and  by  one  Government,  the  necessity  would  infalli- 
bly arise  of  repeating  it  again  by  others,  or  for  other  objects. 
He  was  with  the  King  an  hour  dilating  upon  this  theme. 
The  King  was  extremely  kind,  heard  him  with  great  patience, 
and  paid  him  many  compliments,  and  when  he  took  leave  told 
him  that  he  was  extremely  glad  to  have  had  this  conversation 
with  him.  Sir  Herbert  Taylor  gave  Lord  Wharncliffe  to  un- 
derstand that  he  had  made  an  impression,  only  impressions  on 
the  mind  of  the  King  are  impressions  on  sand.  However, 
from  Taylor's  cautious  hints  to  him  to  persevere,  it  is  likely 
that  he  did  do  good.  He  is  himself  persuaded  that  his  au- 
dience principally  produced  the  delay  in  the  creation  of  Peers. 

In  the  mean  time  he  was  not  idle  at  Brighton.  Lord 
Ailesbury,  who  saw  the  King,  consulted  Wharncliffe,  and 
agreed  at  last  to  tell  the  King  that  his  sentiments  were  the 
same  as  those  which  Lord  Wharncliffe  had  expressed  to  him, 
and  Lord  Kinnoull  and  Lord  Gage  have  promised  him  their 
proxies. 

Yesterday  morning  he  came  to  me  again,  very  desponding. 
He  had  found  Harrowby  in  a  state  of  despair,  uncertain  what 
he  should  do,  and  looking  upon  the  game  as  lost,  and  he  had 
been  with  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  who  was  impracticably 
obstinate,  declaring  that  nothing  should, prevent  his  opposing 
a  Bill  which  he  believed  in  his  conscience  to  be  pregnant  with 
certain  ruin  to  the  country ;  that  he  did  not  care  to  be  a  great 
man  (he  meant  by  this  expression  a  man  of  great  wealth  and 
station),  and  that  he  could  contentedly  sink  into  any  station 
that  circumstances  might  let  him  down  to,  but  he  never  would 
consent  to  be  a  party  directly  or  indirectly  to  such  a  measure 
as  this,  and,  feeling  as  he  did,  he  was  resolved  to  do  his  utmost 
to  throw  it  out,  without  regard  to  consequences.  Wharncliffe 
said  he  was  quite  in  despair,  for  that  he  knew  the  Duke's 
great  influence,  and  that  if  he  and  Harrowby  endeavored  to 
form  a  party  against  his  views,  they  had  no  chance  of  making 


±2  REIGN  OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

one  sufficiently  strong  to  cope  with  him.  Ke  spoke  with  great 
and  rather  unusual  mod.esty  of  himself,  and  of  his  inadequacy 
for  this  purpose ;  that  Harrowby  might  do  more,  and  would 
have  greater  influence,  but  that  he  was  so  undecided  and  so 
without  heart  and  spirit  that  he  would  not  bestir  himself. 
However,  he  acknowledged  that  nothing  else  was  left  to  be 
done. 

In  the  evening  went  to  Lady  Harrowby's,  where  I  found 
him  and  Lord  Haddington.  We  staid  there  till  near  two, 
after  which  Wharncliffe  and  I  walked  up  and  down  Berkeley 
Square.  He  is  in  much  better  spirits,  having  had  a  long  con- 
versation with  these  two  Lords,  both  of  whom  he  said  were 
now  resolved  to  sail  along  w,ith  him,  and  he  contemplates  a 
regular  and  declared  separation  from  the  Duke  upon  this  ques- 
tion. In  the  morning  he  had  seen  Lyndhurst,  who  appeared 
very  undecided,  and  (Wharncliffe  was  apprehensive)  rather 
leaning  toward  the  Duke,  but  I  endeavored  to  persuade  him 
that  Lyndhurst  was  quite  sure  to  adopt  upon  consideration 
the  line  which  appeared  most  conducive  to  his  own  interest 
and  importance,  that  he  had  always  a  hankering  after  being 
Avell  with  Lord  Grey  and  the  Whigs,  and  I  well  remembered 
when  the  late  Government  was  broken  up  he  had  expressed 
himself  in  very  unmeasured  terms  about  the  Duke's  blunders, 
and  the  impossibility  of  his  ever  again  being  Prime  Minister; 
that  with  him  consistency,  character,  and  high  feelings  of 
honor  and  patriotism,  were  secondary  considerations;  that  he 
relied  upon  his  great  talents  and  his  capacity  to  render  him- 
self necessary  to  an  Administration;  that  it  was  not  probable 
he  would  like  to  throw  himself  (even  to  please  the  Duke)  into 
an  opposition  to  the  earnest  desire  which  the  great  mass  of 
the  community  felt  to  have  the  question  settled;  and  that 
both  for  him  and  themselves  much  of  the  difficulty  of  separat- 
ing themselves  from  the  Duke  might  be  avoided  by  the  man- 
ner in  which  it  was  done.  I  entreated  him  to  use  toward  the 
Duke  every  sort  of  frankness  and  candor,  and  to  express  re- 
gret at  the  necessity  of  taking  a  different  line,  together  with 
an  acknowledgment  .of  the  purity  of  the  Duke's  motives; 
and  if  other  people  are  made  to  understand  that  they  can 
separate  from  the  Duke  on  this  occasion  without  offending  or 
quarreling  with  him,  or  throwing  off  the  allegiance  to  him  as 
their  political  leader,  many  will  be  inclined  to  do  so;  besides, 
it  is  of  vital  importance,  if  they  do  get  the  Bill  into  Commit- 
tee, to  secure  the  concurrence  of  the  Duke  and  his  adherents 


1832.]  QUESTION  OF  NEW  PEERS.  43 

in  dealing  with  the  details  of  it,  which  can  only  be  effected 
by  keeping  him  in  good-humor.  On  the  whole,  the  thing  looks 
as  well  as  such  a  thing  can  look. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

Measures  for  cam-ing  the  Second  Reading  of  the  Reform  Bill  In  the  House  of  Lords—  Ths 
Party  of  the  Waverers  —  The  Russo-Dutch  Loan  —  Resistance  of  the  Tory  Peers  —  Lord 
Melbourne's  Views  on  the  Government  —  Macaulay  at  Holland  House—  Reluctance  of 
the  Government  to  create  Peers  —  Duke  of  Wellington  intractable  —  Peel's  Despondency 
—  Lord  Grey  on  the  Measures  of  Conciliation  —  Lord  Wharnciiffe  sees  the  King—  Pros- 
pects of  the  Waverers  —  Conversations  with  Lord  Melbourne  and  Lord  Palmerston  — 
Duke  of  Richmond  on  the  Creation  of  Peers  —  Interview  of  Lord  Grey  with  the  Waver- 
ers— Minute  drawn  up—  Bethnal  Green  —  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  vacillates— 
Violence  of  Extreme  Parties  —  Princess  Lieven's  Journal  —  Lord  Holland  for  making 
Peers  —  Irish  National  Education  —  Seizure  of  Ancona  —  Reform  Bill  passes  the  House  of 
Cpmmons  —  Lord  Dudley's  Madness  —  Debate  in  the  Lords. 


January  24tfA.  —  Yesterday  morning  Frederick  Lamb  came 
to  me  and  told  me  that  the  question  of  the  Peers  was  again 
in  agitation,  that  the  King  had  agreed  to  make  as  many  as 
they  pleased,  and  had  understood  Wharncliffe's  conversation 
with  his  Majesty  not  to  have  contained  any  distinct  assurance 
that  he  would  vote  for  the  second  reading  of  the  Bill.  Our 
party  in  the  Cabinet  still  tight  the  battle,  however,  and  Stanley 
(on  whom  all  depends)  is  said  to  be  firm,  but  circumstances 
may  compel  them  to  give  way,  and  Lord  Grey  (who  is  sus- 
pected to  have  in  his  heart  many  misgivings  as  to  this  meas- 
ure), when  left  to  Durham  &  Co.,  yields  every  thing.  Under 
these  circumstances  I  went  to  Wharnciiffe  last  night,  to  per- 
suade him  to  declare  his  intentions  without  loss  of  time.  He 
owned  that  he  had  not  pledged  himself  to  the  King,  and  he 
was  frightened  to  death  at  the  idea  of  taking  this  step,  lest  it 
should  give  umbrage  to  the  Tories,  and  he  should  find  himself 
without  any  support  at  all.  We  went,  however,  together  to 
Grosvenor  Square,  and  had  a  long  conference  with  Harrowby, 
whom  I  found  equally  undecided. 

In  the  mean  time  the  Tories  are  full  of  activity  and  ex- 
pectation, and  Lord  Aberdeen  is  going  to  bring  on  a  motion 
about  Belgium  on  Thursday,  on  which  they  expect  to  beat  the 
Government,  not  comprehending  that  a  greater  evil  could  not 
occur,  or  a  better  excuse  be  afforded  them  for  an  immediate 
creation  ;  still  they  have  got  it  into  their  heads  that  if  they 
can  beat  the  Government  before  the  Reform  Bill  comes  on 


44  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

they  will  force  them  to  resign.  I  found  Harrowby  and  Wharn- 
cliffe  equally  undecided  as  to  the  course  they  should  adopt, 
the  former  clinging  to  the  hope  that  the  Peerage  question  was 
at  last  suspended,  that  Lord  Grey  was  compunctious,  the 
King  reluctant,  and  so  forth — Wharncliffe  afraid  of  being 
abandoned  by  those  who  are  now  disposed  to  consult  and  act 
with  him,  and  indisposed  to  commit  himself  irretrievably  in 
the  House  of  Lords.  After  a  long  discussion  I  succeeded  in 
persuading  them  that  the  danger  is  imminent,  that  there  is  no 
other  chance  of  avoiding  it,  and  they  agreed  to  hoist  their 
standard,  get  what  followers  they  can,  and  declare  in  the 
House  for  the  second  reading  without  loss- of  time.  Har- 
rowby said  of  himself  that  he  was  the  worst  person  in  the 
world  to  conciliate  and  be  civil,  which  is  true  enough,  but  he 
has  a  high  reputation,  and  his  opinion  is  of  immense  value. 
Until  they  declare  themselves  not  a  step  will  be  made,  and  if 
they  cannot  gain  adherents,  why,  the  matter  is  at  an  end ; 
while  if  their  example  be  followed,  there  is  still  a  chance  of 
averting  the  climax  of  all  evils,  the  swamping  the  House 
of  Lords  and  the  permanent  establishment  of  the  power 
of  the  present  Government.  Wharncliffe  is  to  go  to  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  to-day,  to  entreat  him  not  to  let  his 
party  divide  on  Aberdeen's  motion  on  Thursday,  and  Har- 
rowby will  go  to  the  Archbishop  to  invite  his  adhesion  to 
their  party.  I  am  very  doubtful  what  success  to  augur 
from  this,  but  it  is  the  only  chance,  and  though  the  bulk 
of  the  Tory  Peers  are  prejudiced,  obstinate,  and  stupid  to 
the  last  degree,  there  are  scattered  among  them  men  of 
more  rational  views  and  more  moderate  dispositions.  Sandon 
came  in  while  we  were  there,  and  expressed  precisely  the 
same  opinion  that  I  had  been  endeavoring  to  enforce  upon 
them.  He  said  that  in  the  House  of  Commons,  whence  he 
was  just  come,  the  Government  had  refused  to  give  way  upon 
a  very  reasonable  objection,  without  assigning  any  reason  (the 
numbers  in  Schedule  B),  that  this  evinced  an  unconciliatory 
spirit,  which  was  very  distressing  to  those  who  wished  for  a 
compromise,  that  Hobhouse  came  to  him  after  the  debate,  and 
said  how  anxious  he  was  that  they  should  come  to  some  un- 
derstanding, and  act  in  a  greater  spirit  of  conciliation,  and 
talked  of  a  meeting  of  the  moderate  on  either  side,  that  his 
constituents  were  eager  for  a  settlement,  and  by  no  means 
averse  to  concession,  but  that  while  Peel,  Croker,  and  others, 
persisted  in  the  tone  they  had  adopted,  and  in  the  sort  of 


1S32.]  PLANS  FOR   CONCILIATON.  45 

opposition  they  were  pursuing,  it  was  quite  impossible  for  the 
Government  to  give  way  upon  any  thing,  or  evince  any  dispo- 
sition to  make  concessions,  Sandon  said  he  had  no  doubt 
whatever  that  if  Peel  had  assumed  a  different  tone  at  the 
beginning  of  the  session  the  Government  would  have  been 
moderate,  and  mutual  concessions  might  have  been  feasible 
even  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Hobhouse,  however,  said 
that  the  alterations,  whatever  they  might  be  (and  he  owned 
that  he  should  like  some),  would  come  with  a  better  grace  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  and  this  is  what  I  have  all  along  thought. 
O'Connell  arrived  yesterday,  took  his  seat,  and  announced  his 
intention  of  supporting  Government  at  any  rate.  All  the 
Irish  members  do  the  same,  and  this  great  body,  that  every 
one  expected  would  display  hostility  to  the  Bill,  have  formed 
themselves  into  a  phalanx,  and  will  carry  it  through  any 
difficulties  by  their  compactness  and  the  regularity  of  their 
attendance. 

January  25th. — We  met  at  Lord  Harrowby's  last  night 
— Wharncliffe,  Harrowby,  Haddington,  and  Sandon — and  I 
found  their  minds  were  quite  made  up.  Wharncliffe  is  to 
present  a  petition  from  Hull,  and  to  take  that  opportunity  of 
making  his  declaration,  and  the  other  two  are  to  support  him. 
Wharncliffe  saw  the  Bishop  of  London  in  the  morning,  who  is 
decided  the  same  way,  and  he  asked  Lord  Devon,  who  knows 
the  House  of  Lords  very  well,  if  he  thought,  in  the  event  of 
their  raising  the  standard  of  moderate  Reform,  that  they 
would  have  adherents,  to  which  he  replied  he  was  convinced 
they  would.  Lord  Harrowby  saw  the  Archbishop,  who  would 
not  pledge  himself,  but  appeared  well  disposed ;  and  altogether 
they  think  they  can  count  upon  the  nine  bishops.  Wharncliffe 
spoke  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington  about  Lord  Aberdeen's 
motion,  and  represented  all  the  impolicy  of  it  at  this  moment, 
and  the  connection  it  might  have  with  the  Peerage  question; 
to  which  he  only  replied  by  enlarging  on  "  the  importance  of 
the  Belgic  question,"  either  unable  or  unwilling  to  embrace 
this  measure  in  its  complex  relations,  and  never  perceiving 
that  the  country  cares  not  a  straw  about  Belgium  or  any 
thing  but  Reform,  though  they  may  begin  to  care  about  such 
things  when  this  question  is  settled.  Haddington  also  went 
to  Aberdeen,  who  would  hear  nothing;  but  he  and  the  Duke 
severally  promised  to  speak  to  one  another.  The  question 
last  night  was  whether  Wharncliffe  should  say  his  say  directly, 
or  wait  (as  he  wishes  to  do)  for  a  few  days.  The  decision  of 


46  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

this  he  referred  to  me,  and  I  have  referred  it  to  Melbourne,  to 
whom  I  have  communicated  what  has  passed. 

News  came  yesterday  that  the  cholera  had  got  within 
three  miles  of  Edinburgh,  and  to  show  the  fallacy  of  any 
theory  about  it,  and  the  inutility  of  the  prescribed  precau- 
tions, at  one  place  (Newport,  I  think)  one  person  in  live  of 
the  whole  population  was  attacked,  though  there  was  no  lack 
of  diet,  warmth,  and  clothing,  for  the  poor.  This  disease 
escapes  from  all  speculation,  so  partial  and  eccentric  is  its 
character. 

January  29th. — There  were  two  divisions  on  Thursday 
night  last — in  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  Belgian  question, 
and  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  Russian  Loan.  Har- 
rowby,  Wharncliffe,  and  Haddington,  staid  away ;  Lynd- 
hurst  voted.  Only  two  bishops,  Durham  and  Killaloe. 
Ministers  had  a  majority  of  thirty-seven,  for  Aberdeen  and 
the  Duke  persisted  in  bringing  on  the  question  and  dividing 
upon  it.  The  former  spoke  nearly  three  hours,  and  far 
better  than  ever  he  had  done  before ;  the  Duke  was  prosy. 
In  the  other  House  the  Government  had  not  a  shadow  of  a 
case;  their  law  officers,  Home  and  Denman,  displayed  an  ig- 
norance and  stupidity  which  were  quite  ludicrous,  and  nothing 
saved  them  from  defeat  but  a  good  speech  at  the  end  from 
Palmerston,  and  their  remonstrances  to  their  friends  that  un- 
less they  carried  it  they  must  resign.  Not  a  soul  defends 
them,  and  they  are  particularly  blamed  for  their  folly  in  not 
coining  to  Parliament  at  once,  by  which  they  might  have 
avoided  the  scrape.1  They  had  only  a  majority  of  twenty- 
four.  They  were  equally  disgusted  with  both  these  divisions, 
both  plainly  showing  that  they  have  little  power  (indepen- 
dently of  the  Reform  question)  in  either  House.  To  be  sure 
the  case  in  the  House  of  Commons  was  a  wretched  one,  but  in 
the  House  of  Lords  there  was  nothing  to  justify  a  vote  of  cen- 
sure on  Government,  to  which  Aberdeen's  motion  was  tanta- 
mount. But  while  they  had  a  majority  which  was  respectable 
enough  to  make  it  impossible  to  propose  making  Peers  on  that 
account,  it  was  so  small  that  they  see  clearly  what  they  have 
to  expect  hereafter  from  such  a  House  of  Lords,  and  accord- 
ingly their  adherents  have  thrown  off  the  mask.  Sefton  called 

1  {For  a  more  particular  account  of  the  question  of  the  Russo-Dutch  Loan 
see  infra,  p.  49.  It  has  since  been  universally  admitted  that  the  conduct  o 
the  Government  was  wise  and  honorable,  and  that  the  separation  of  Holland 
and  Belgium  did  n  t  exonerate  Great  Britain  from  a  financial  engagement,  to 
foreign  Powers.] 


1832.]  GOVERNMENT   DISSATISFIED.  47 

on  me  the  .day  after,  and  said  it  was  .ridiculous  to  go  on  in  this 
way,  that  the  Tories  had  had  possession  of  the  Government  so 
many  years,  and  the  power  of  making1  so  many  Peers,  that  no 
Whig  or  other  Ministry  could  stand  without  a  fresh  creation 
to  redress  the  balance. 

After  having,  as  I  supposed,  settled  every  thing  with 
Wharncliffe  about  his  declaration,  I  got  a  letter  from  him  yes- 
terday (from  Brighton),  saying  he  thought  it  would  be  pre- 
mature, and  wished  to  put  it  off  till  the  first  reading  of  the 
Bill  in  the  House  of  Lords.  I  took  his  letter  to  Melbourne, 
and  told  him  I  was  all  against  the  delay.  He  said  it  was  no 
doubt  desirable  they  should  get  as  many  adherents  as  they 
can,  and  if  the  delay  would  enable  them  to  do  so  it  might  be 
better,  but  they  must  not  imagine  Government  was  satisfied 
with  the  division  in  the 'House  of  Lords.  However,  the  ques- 
tion of  Peers  seems  not  to  be  under  discussion  at  this  moment, 
though'  it  is  perpetually  revived.  In  the  evening  I  went  to 
Harrowby's  and  showed  him  Wharncliffe's  letter.  He  con- 
curred in  the  expediency  of  delay,  but  without  convincing  me. 
He  showed  me  a  letter,  and  a  very  good  one,  he  has  written 
to  Lord  Talbot,  explaining  his  views,  and  inviting  his  concur- 
rence, and  of  this  he  has  sent  copies  to  other  Peers,  whom  he 
thinks  it  possible  he  may  influence.  The  question  of  time 
and  manner  is  to  be  reserved  for  future  discussion. 

February  %d. — Met  Frederick  Lamb  at  dinner  to  talk 
over  the  state  of  affairs  before  he  goes  to  Vienna.  What  he 
wishes  for  is  the  expulsion  of  this  Government,  and  the  for- 
mation of  a  moderate  one  taken  from  all  parties.  Received 
another  letter  from  Wharnclifle  yesterday,  in  which  he  stated 
that  he  had  communicated  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington  his 
intention  of  supporting  the  second  reading,  and  asked  if  the 
Duke  would  support  his  amendments  in  Committee.  In  the 
mean  time  I  wrote  to  Harrowby,  begging  he  would  communi- 
cate with  Lord  Carnarvon  and  the  Duke  of  Buckingham. 
They  keep  doubting  and  fearing  about  who  will  or  who  will 
not  join  them,  but  do  not  stir  a  step.  George' Bentinck  told 
me  that  Lord  Holland  said  to  the  Duke  of  Richmond  the  other 
day  "  that  he  had  heard  a  declaration  was  in  agitation ;  that 
nothing  could  be  more  unfortunate  at  this  moment,  as  it 
would  make  it  very  difficult  to  create  fifty  Peers."  In  the 
mean  time  a  difficulty  is  likely  to  arise  from  another  source, 
and  the  Government  to  derive  strength  from  their  very  weak- 
ness. Robert  Clive  (who  is  a  moderate  Tory)  called  on  me 


48  SEIGN  OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

the  other  day,  and  when  (after  expressing  his  anxiety  that 
the  question  should  be  settled)  I  asked  him  whether  such  a 
declaration  would  meet  with  much  success,  said  he  thought 
that  it  would  have  done  so  a  fortnight  ago,  but  that  the  ex- 
treme discredit  into  which  Ministers  were  fallen  would  now 
operate  as  a  reason  against  supporting  them  in  any  stage  of 
the  business,  and  offered  so  good  a  chance  of  expelling  them 
altogether  that  people  would  be  anxious  to  try  it.  Still  it 
must  be  so  obvious  that  it  would  be  next  to  impossible  to 
make  a  Government  now,  that  it  is  to  be  hoped  all  but  the 
most  violent  will  feel  it.  Herries  indeed  told  somebody  that 
he  had  no  doubt  the  Tories  could  make  a  Government,  and 
that  on  a  dissolution  they  would  get  a  Parliament  that  would 
support  them.  Parnell,1  has  been  turned  out  for  not  voting  on 
the  Russian  Loan  affair,  and  Hobhouse  appointed  in  his  place. 
Tennyson  resigned  from  ill  health.  Parnell  was  properly 
enough  turned  out,  and  he  is  a  good  riddance,  but  it  is  not 
the  same  thing  as  turning  people  out  on  Reform.  He  wrote 
an  excellent  book  on  finance,  but  he  was  a  very  bad  Secretary 
at  War,  a  rash  economical  innovator,  and  a  bad  man  of  busi- 
ness in  its  details.  After  waiting  till  the  last  moment  for  the 
arrival  of  the  Russian  ratification,  the  French  and  English 
signed  the  Belgian  treaty  alone,  and  the  others  are  to  sign 
after  as  their  powers  arrive. 

February  4:th. — Called  on  Lord  Harrowby  in  the  morning ; 
found  him  in  very  bad  spirits,  as  well  he  might,  for  to  all  the 
invitations  he  had  written  to  Peers  he  had  received  either  re- 
fusals or  no  reply,  so  that  he  augurs  ill  of  their  attempt. 
Carnarvon  and  Talbot  refused  ;  these  besotted,  predestinated 
Tories  will  follow  the  Duke  ;  the  Duke  will  oppose  all  Reform 
because  he  said  he  would.  Those  who  are  inclined  will  not 
avow  their  conversion  to  moderate  principles,  and  so  they  will 
go  on,  waiting  and  staring  at  one  another,  till  one  fine  day  the 
Peers  will  come  out  in  the  Gazette.  The  thing  looks  ill. 
Dined  with  Lord  Holland.  Melbourne,  who  was  there,  asked 

1  [Sir  Henry  Parnell  had  been  appointed  Secretary  at  War  on  the  formation 
of  Lord  Grey's  Ministry.  He  had  exasperated  his  colleagues  by  entering  upon 
an  unauthorized  negotiation  with  the  French  Post-Office,  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  Duke  of  Bichmond,  then  Postmaster-General,  and  by  encouraging  Jo- 
seph Hume  to  bring  on  a  motion  against  the  Post-Office.  Hume  brought 
this  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Eichmond,  who  was  indignant  and  laid  the  whole 
matter  before  Lord  Grey,  who  behaved  very  well  about  it.  Parnell  narrowly 
escaped  dismissal  at  that  time,  and  on  his  next  sign  of  disaffection  to  the  Gov- 
ernment he  was  turned  out  of  office.] 


1832.|  THE   RUSSIAN  LOAX.  49 

me  if  I  had  heard  from  "Wharncliffe,  but  I  did  not  tell  him  of 
Lord  Harrowby's  refusals. 

Falck  dined  there,  and  in  conversation  about  the  Russian 
Loan  he  told  us  the  original  history  of  it.  The  Emperor  of 
Russia  had  borrowed  ninety  millions  of  florins,  and  when  his 
concurrence  and  support  were  desired  to  the  new  kingdom  of 
the  Netherlands  he  proposed  in  return  that  the  King  of  Hol- 
land should  take  this  debt  off  his  hands.  The  King  said  he 
would  gladly  meet  his  wishes,  but  could  not  begin  by  making 
himself  unpopular  with  his  new  subjects  and  saddling  them 
with  this  debt.  Whereupon  England  interposed,  and  an  ar- 
rangement was  made  [in  1815]  by  which  Russia,  England,  and 
the  King  of  the  Netherlands,  divided  the  debt  into  three  equal 
shares,  each  taking  one.  With  reference  to  the  argument 
that  the  countries  being  divided  we  ought  no  longer  to  pay 
our  share,  Falck  said  the  King  of  the  Netherlands  had  not  re- 
fused to  pay  on  those  grounds,  that  he  had  only  (with  reference 
to  his  heavy  expenses)  expressed  his  present  inability  and 
asked  for  time,  which  the  Emperor  of  Russia  had  agreed  to. 
What  he  meant  was  that  the  kingdoms  were  not  as  yet  dejure 
separated,  and  that  the  casus  had  not  yet  arrived.  This,  how- 
ever, is  nothing  to  the  purpose,  for  the  King  and  the  Emperor 
understand  one  another  very  well,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  the 
King  should  do  any  thing  to  supply  us  with  a  motive  or  a 
pretext  for  refusing  our  quota  to  his  imperial  ally.  Brougham's 
speech  on  the'  Russian  Loan  everybody  agrees  to  have  been 
super-excellent — "  a  continued  syllogism  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end."  Lord  Holland  said,  and  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton (I  am  told)  declared,  it  was  the  best  speech  he  had  ever 
heard. 

February  5th. — Met  Melbourne  yesterday  evening,  and 
turned  back  and  walked  with  him  ;  talked  over  the  state  of 
affairs.  He  said  Government  were  very  much  annoyed  at 
their  division  in  the  House  of  Commons,  though  Brougham 
had  in  some  measure  repaired  that  disaster  in  the  House  of 
Lords  ;  that  it  became  more  difficult  to  resist  making  Peers 
as  Government  exhibited  greater  weakness.  I  told  him  the 
Tories  were  so  unmanageable  because  they  wished  to  drive 
out  the  Government,  and  thought  they  could.  Dined  at  the 
Sheriff's  dinner — not  unpleasant — and  went  in  the  evening 
to  Lady  Harrowby;  Lord  Harrow  by  gone  to  his  brothers'. 
Melbourne  had  told  me  that  he  had  spoken  to  Haddington, 
and  I  found  Haddington  had  given  a  report  of  what  he  said 
25 


50  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  ^  [CHAP.  XVII. 

sucli  as  I  am  sure  Melbourne  did  not  mean  to  convey ;  the 
upshot  of  which  was  that  there  was  only  one  man  in  the  Cabi- 
net who  wished  to  make  Peers,  that  there  was  no  immediate 
danger,  and  that  it  would  do  more  harm  than  good  if  they 
declared  themselves  without  a  good  number  of  adherents. 
Called  this  morning  on  Lady  C.,  who  said  that  Melbourne  was 
in  fact  very  much  annoyed  at  his  position,  wanted  caractere, 
was  wretched  at  having  been  led  so  far,  and  tossed  backward 
and  forward  between  opposite  sentiments  and  feelings ;  that 
he  thought  the  Government  very  weak,  and  that  they  would 
not  stand,  and  in  fact  that  he  did  not  desire  they  should  remain 
in,  but  the  contrary.  And  this  is  Frederick's  opinion  too,  who 
has  great  influence  over  him,  while  at  the  same  time  he  is 
rather  jealous  of  Frederick. 

February  6th. — Dined  yesterday  with  Lord  Holland ;  came 
very  late,  and  found  a  vacant  place  between  Sir  George  Rob- 
inson and  a  common-looking  man  in  black.  As  soon  as  I  had 
time  to  look  at  my  neighbor,  I  began  to  speculate  (as  one 
usually  does)  as  to  who  he  might  be,  and  as  he  did  not  for 
some  time  open  his  lips  except  to  eat,  I  settled  that  he  was 
some  obscure  man  of  letters  or  of  medicine,  perhaps  a  cholera 
doctor.  In  a  short  time  the  conversation  turned  upon  early 
and  late  education,  and  Lord  Holland  said  he  had  always 
remarked  that  self-educated  men  were  peculiarly  conceited 
and  arrogant,  and  apt  to  look  down  upon  the  generality  of 
mankind,  from  their  being  ignorant  of  how  much  other  people 
knew ;  not  having  been  at  public  schools,  they  are  uninformed 
of  the  course  of  general  education.  My  neighbor  observed 
that  he  thought  the  most  remarkable  example  of  self-educa- 
tion was  that  of  Alfieri,  who  had  reached  the  age  of  thirty 
without  having  acquired  any  accomplishment  save  that  of 
driving,  and  who  was  so  ignorant  of  his  own  language  that  he 
had  to  learn  it  like  a  child,  beginning  with  elementary  books. 
Lord  Holland  quoted  Julius  Caesar  and  Scaliger  as  examples 
of  late  education,  said  that  the  latter  had  been  wounded,  and 
that  he  had  been  married  and  commenced  learning  Greek  the 
same  day,  when  my  neighbor  remarked  "  that  he  supposed  his 
learning  Greek  was  not  an  instantaneous  act  like  his  mar- 
riage." This  remark,  and  the  manner  of  it,  gave  me  the 
notion  that  he  was  a  dull  fellow,  for  it  came  out  in  a  way 
which  bordered  on  the  ridiculous,  so  as  to  excite  something 
like  a  sneer.  I  was  a  little  surprised  to  hear  him  continue  the 
thread  of  conversation  (from  Scaliger's  wound)  and  talk  of 


1832.]  T.   B.    MACAULAY.  51 

Loyola  having  been  wounded  at  Pampeluna.  I  wondered  how 
lie  happened  to  know  any  thing  about  Loyola's  wound.  Hav- 
ing thus  settled  ray  opinion,  I  went  on  eating  my  dinner, 
when  Auckland,  who  was  sitting  opposite  to  me,  addressed 
my  neighbor,  "Mr.  Macaulay,  will  you  drink  a  glass  of 
wine  ?  "  I  thought  I  should  have  dropped  off  my  chair.  It 
was  MACAULAY,  the  man  I  had  been  so  long  most  curious  to 
see  and  to  hear,  whose  genius,  eloquence,  astonishing  knowl- 
edge, and  diversified  talents,  have  excited  my  wonder  and  ad- 
miration for  such  a  length  of  time,  and  here  I  had  been  sitting 
next  to  him,  hearing  him  talk,  and  setting  him  down  for  a  dull 
fellow.  I  felt  as  if  he  could  have  read  my  thoughts,  and  the 
perspiration  burst  from  every  pore  of  my  face,  and  yet  it  was 
impossible  not  to  be  amused  at  the  idea.  It  was  not  till 
Macaulay  stood  up  that  I  was  aware  of  all  the  vulgarity  and 
ungainliness  of  his  appearance;  not  a  ray  of  intellect  beams 
from  his  countenance ;  a  lump  of  more  ordinary  clay  never 
inclosed  a  powerful  mind  and  lively  imagination.  He  had 
a  cold  and  sore-throat,  the  latter  of  which  occasioned  a  con- 
stant contraction  of  the  muscles  of  the  thorax,  making  him 
appear  as  if  in  momentary  danger  of  a  fit.  His  manner  struck 
me  as  not  pleasing,  but  it  was  not  assuming,  unembarrassed, 
yet  not  easy,  unpolished,  yet  not  coarse ;  there  was  no  kind 
of  usurpation  of  the  conversation,  no  tenacity  as  to  opinion  or 
facts,  no  assumption  of  superiority,  but  the  variety  and  extent 
of  his  information  were  soon  apparent,  for  whatever  subject 
was  touched  upon  he  evinced  the  utmost  familiarity  with  it ; 
quotation,  illustration,  anecdote,  seemed  ready  in  his  hands  for 
every  topic.  Primogeniture  in  this  country,  in  others,  and 
particularly  in  ancient  Rome,  was  the  principle  topic,  I  think, 
but  Macaulay  was  not  certain  what  was  the  law  of  Rome, 
except  that  when  a  man  died  intestate  his  estate  was  divided 
between  his  children.  After  dinner  Talleyrand  and  Madame 
Dino  came  in.  He  was  introduced  to  Talleyrand,  who  told 
him  he  meant  to  go  to  the  House  of  Commons  on  Tuesday, 
and  that  he  hoped  he  would  speak,  "  qu'il  avait  entendu  tous 
les  grands  orateurs,  et  il  d6sirait  d  present  entendre  Monsieur 
Macaulay." 

February  Vth. — Called  on  Melbourne.  He  said  he  had 
not  meant  Haddington  to  understand  that  it  was  desirable 
the  declaration  should  be  delayed ;  on  the  contrary,  that  it 
was  desirable  Ministers  should  be  informed  as  speedily  as  pos- 
sible <rf  the  intentions  of  our  friends  and  of  the  force  they 


52  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM  IV.  [CuAP.  XVII. 

can  command,  but  that  if  only  a  few  declared  themselves, 
they  would  certainly  be  liable  to  the  suspicion  that  they 
could  not  get  adherents;  he  added  that  every  man  in  the 
Government  (except  one)  was  aware  of  the  desperate  nature 
of  the  step  they  were  about  to  take  (that  man  of  course 
being  Durham).  I  told  him  that  his  communication  to 
Haddington  had  to  a  certain  degree  had  the  effect  of 
paralyzing  my  exertions,  and  he  owned  it  was  imprudent. 
I  was,  however,  extremely  surprised  to  hear  what  he  said 
about  the  Cabinet,  and  I  asked  him  if  it  really  was  so,  and 
that  all  the  members  of  it  were  bond  fide  alarmed  at,  and 
averse  to,  the  measure ;  that  I  had  always  believed  that,  with 
the  exception  of  those  who  were  intimate  with  him,  they  all 
wanted  the  pretext  in  order  to  establish  their  power.  He 
said  no,  they  really  all  were  conscious  of  the  violence  of  the 
measure,  and  desirous  of  avoiding  it;  that  Lord  Grey  had 
been  so  from  the  beginning,  but  that  Durham  was  always  at 
him,  and  made  him  fall  into  his  violent  designs  ;  that  it  was 
"  a  reign  of  terror,"  but  that  Durham  could  do  with  him  what 
he  pleased.  What  a  picture  of  secret  degradation  and  imbe- 
cility in  the  towering  and  apparently  haughty  Lord  Grey  !  I 
told  Melbourne  that  it  was  important  to  gain  time,  that  there 
was  an  appearance  of  a  thaw  among  the  199,  but  that  most 
of  them  were  in  the  country ;  communications  by  letter 
were  difficult  and  unsatisfactory ;  that  many  were  averse  to 
breaking  up  the  party  or  leaving  the  Duke — in  short,  from 
one  cause  or  another  doubtful  and  wavering ;  that  it  was  not 
to  be  expected  they  should  at  a  moment's  warning  take  this 
new  line,  in  opposition  to  the  opinions  and  conduct  of  their 
old  leaders,  and  that  when  Lord  Harrowby  was  exerting 
himself  indefatigably  to  bring  them  to  reason,  and  to  render 
a  measure  unnecessary  which  in  the  opinion  of  the  Cabinet 
itself  was  fraught  with  evil,  it  was  fair  and  just  to  give  him 
time  to  operate.  He  said  this  was  very  true,  but  that  time 
was  likewise  required  to  execute  the  measure  of  a  creation  of 
Peers,  that  people  must  be  invited,  the  patents  made  out,  etc. 
We  then  parted.  Down-stairs  was  Rothschild  the  Jew 
waiting  for  him,  and  the  valet  de  chambre  sweeping-  away  a 
bonnet  and  a  shawl. 

On  my  way  from  Melbourne  called  on  Lord  Harrowby, 
and  read  a  variety  of  letters — answers  from  different  Peers  to 
his  letters,  Wharncliffe's  correspondence  with  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  and  Peel's  answer  to  Lord  Harrowby.  Wham 


1S.VJ.]  THE   DUKE'S   LETTER.  53 

rliQ'e  wrote  a  long  and  very  conciliatory  letter  to  the  Duke, 
nearly  to  the  effect  of  Lord  Harrowby's  circular,  and  contain- 
ing the  same  arguments,  to  which  the  Duke  replied  by  a  long 
letter,  written  evidently  in  a  very  ill  humor,  and  such  a 
galimatias  as  I  never  read,  angry,  ill  expressed,  and  confused, 
and  from  which  it  was  difficult  to  extract  any  thing  intelligible 
but  this,  "That  he  was  aware  of  the  consequences  of  the 
course  he  should  adopt  himself,  and  wished  the  House  of 
Lords  to  adopt,  viz.,  the  same  as  last  year,  but  that  be  those 
consequences  what  they  might,  the  responsibility  would  not 
lie  on  his  shoulders,  but  on  those  of  the  Government;  he 
acknowledged  that  a  creation  of  Peers  would  swamp  the 
House  of  Lords,  and,  by  so  doing,  destroy  the  Constitution, 
but  the  Government  would  be  responsible,  not  he,  for  the  ruin 
that  would  ensue;  that  he  was  aware  some  Reform  was 
necessary  (in  so  far  departing  from  his  former  declaration  of 
the  30th  of  November),  but  he  would  neither  propose  any  thing 
himself,  nor  take  this  measure,  nor  try  and  amend  it."  In 
short,  he  will  do  nothing  but  talk  nonsense,  despair,  and  be 
obstinate,  and  then  he  is  hampered  by  declarations  (from 
which  he  now  sees  himself  that  he  must  dissent),  and  obliged 
from  causes  connected  with  the  Catholic  question  and  the  Test 
and  Corporation  Acts  to  attend  more  to  the  consistency  of  his 
own  character  than  to  the  exigencies  of  the  country,  but  with 
much  more  personal  authority  than  anybody,  and  still  blindly 
obeyed  and  followed  by  men,  many  of  whom  take  very  rational 
and  dispassionate  views  of  the  subject,  but  who  still  are  re- 
solved to  sacrifice  their  own  sense  to  his  folly.  He  really  has 
accomplished  being  a  prophet  in  his  own  country,  not  from  the 
sagacity  of  his  predictions,  but  from  the  blind  worship  of  his 
devotees. 

Peel's  letter,  though  arriving  at  the  same  conclusion,  was 
in  a  very  different  style.  It  certainly  was  an  able  production, 
well  expressed  and  plausibly  argued,  with  temper  and  modera- 
tion. He  owned  that  much  was  to  be  said  on  the  side  of  the 
question  which  he  does  not  espouse,  but  the  reasons  by  which 
he  says  he  is  mainly  governed  are  these :  that  it  is  of  vital 
importance  to  preserve  the  consistency  of  the  party  to  which 
we  are  to  look  for  future  safety,  and  that  when  this  excitement 
has  passed  away  the  conduct  of  the  anti-Reformers  will  have 
justice  done  to  it.  But  there  is  a  contradiction  which  per- 
vades his  argument,  for  he  treats  the  subject  as  if  all  hope  had 
vanished  of  saving  the  country,  "desperat  de  republica,"  and 


5-i  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

he  does  not  promise  himself  present  advantage  from  the  firm- 
ness and  consistency  of  the  Tories,  but  taking  it  in  connection 
with  the  folly  and  wickedness  of  the  other  party  (who  he  is 
persuaded  bitterly  regret  their  own  precipitate  violence  and 
folly),  he  expects  it  to  prove  serviceable  as  an  example  and 
beacon  to  future  generations.  All  the  evils  that  have  been 
predicted  may  flow  from  this  measure  when  carried  into  com- 
plete operation,  but  it  is  neither  statesmanlike  nor  manly  to 
throw  up  the  game  in  despair,  and  surrender  every  point,  and 
waive  every  compensation,  in  order  to  preserve  the  consistency 
of  himself  and  his  own  party,  not  that  their  consistency  is  to 
produce  any  advantage,  but  that  hereafter  it 

May  point  a  moral  or  adorn  a  tale. 

So  senseless  is  this,  that  it  is  clear  to  me  that  it  is  not  his  real 
feeling,  and  that  he  promises  himself  some  personal  advantage 
from  the  adoption  of  such  a  course.  Peel  "loves"  himself, 
"  not  wisely,  but  too  well." 

February  9th. — Yesterday  I  met  Lord  Grey  and  rode  with 
him.  I  told  him  that  the  Tories  were  pleased  at  his  speech 
about  the  Irish  Tithes.  He  said  "  he  did  not  know  why,  for 
he  had  cot  said  what  he  did  with  a  view  to  please  them."  I 
said  because  they  looked  upon  it  as  an  intimation  that  the  old 
Protestant  ascendency  was  to  be  restored.  He  rejected  very 
indignantly  that  idea,  and  said*  he  had  never  comtemplated 
any  ascendency  but  that  of  the  law  and  the  Government.  I 
said  I  knew  that,  but  that  they  had  been  so  long  used  to 
consider  themselves  as  the  sole  representatives  of  the  law 
and  the  Government,  that  they  took  the  assertion  he  had 
made  as  a  notification  that  their  authority  was  again  to  be 
exercised  as  in  by-gone  times.  He  then  asked  me  if  I  knew 
what  Lord  Harrowby  had  done,  said  he  had  spoken  to  him, 
that  he  was  placed  in  a  difficult  position  and  did  not  know 
what  to  do.  I  said  that  Harrowby  was  exerting  himself,  that 
time  was  required  to  bring  people  round,  that  I  had  reason 
to  believe  Harrowby  had  made  a  great  impression,  but  that 
most  of  the  Peers  of  that  party  were  out  of  town,  and  it  was 
impossible  to  expect  them  on  the  receipt  of  a  letter  of  in- 
vitation and  advice  to  reply  by  return  of  post  that  they  would 
abandon  their  leaders  and  their  party,  and  change  their  whole 
opinions  and  course  of  action,  that  they  expected  the  Arch- 
bishop and  Bishop  of  London  would  go  with  him,  and  that 
they  would  carry  the  bench.  He  said  the  Bishop  of  London 


1831'.]  CONVERSATION   WITH   LORD   GREY.  55 

he  had  already  talked  to,  that  the  Archbishop  was  such  a 
poor,  miserable  creature  that  there  was  no  dependence  to 
be  placed  on  him,  that  he  would  be  frightened  and  vote 
any  way  his  fear  directed.  Then  he  asked,  how  many  had 
they  sure?  I  said,  "At  this  moment  not  above  eight 
Ix?rds  and  eight  bishops."  He  said  that  was  not  enough. 
I  said  I  knew  that,  but  he  must  have  patience,  and  should 
remember  that  when  the  Duke  of  Wellington  brought  the 
Catholic  Bill  into  the  House  of  Commons  he  had  a  majority 
on  paper  against  him  in  the  House  of  Lords  of  twenty-five, 
and  he  carried  the  Bill  by  a  hundred.  He  said  he  should  like 
to  talk  to  Harrowby  again,  which  I  pressed  him  to  do,  and  he 
said  he  would.  I  find  Lord  John  Russell  sent  for  Sandon,  and 
told  him  that  he  and  the  others  were  really  anxious  to  avoid 
making  Peers,  and  entreated  him  to  get  something  done  by 
his  father  and  his  associates  as  soon  as  possible,  that  there 
was  no  time  to  be  lost,  that  he  should  not  deny  that  he  wished 
Peers  to  be  made,  not  now,  but  after  the  Reform  Bill  had 
passed.  I  called  on  Lord  Harroby  in  the  afternoon,  and  found 
him  half  dead  with  a  headache  and  dreadfully  irritable.  Let- 
ters had  come  (which  he  had  not  seen)  from  Lord  Bagot,  re- 
fusing, Lord  Carteret,  ditto,  and  very  impertinently,  and  Lord 
Calthorpe,  adhering.  I  told  him  what  had  passed  between 
Lord  Grey  and  me.  He  said  their  insolence  had  been  hitherto 
so  great  in  refusing  to  listen  to  any  terms  (at  the  meeting  of 
the  six),  and  in  refusing  any  concession  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons and  not  tolerating  the  slightest  alteration,  that  he  de- 
spaired of  doing  any  thing  with  them,  that  Lord  Grey  had 
told  him  he  could  not  agree  to  make  a  sham  resistance  in 
Committee,  but  that  he  on  the  other  hand  would  not  agree  to 
go  into  Committee,  except  on  an  express  understanding  that 
they  should  not  avail  themselves  of  the  probable  disunion  of 
the  Tories  to  carry  all  the  details  of  their  Bill.  The  difficul- 
ties are  immense,  but  if  Grey  and  Harrowby  get  together,  it  is 
possible  something  may  be  done,  provided  they  will  approach 
each  other  in  a  spirit  of  compromise.  It  is  certainly  easier 
now,  and  very  different  from  the  House  of  Commons,  where  I 
have  always  thought  they  coidd  make  no  concession.  In  the 
House  of  Lords  they  may  without  difficulty.  I  dread  the 
obstinate  of  both  parties. 

February  llth. — Wharncliffe  came  to  town  on  Thursday 
and  called  on  me.  At  Brighton  he  had  seen  Sir  Andrew 
Barnard,  and  showed  him  the  correspondence  with  the  Duke 


50  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

of  Wellington,  telling  him  at  the  same  time  he  might  men- 
tion it  to  Taylor  if  he  liked,  and  if  Taylor  had  any  wish  to 
see  it  he  should.  Accordingly  Taylor  sent  him  word  he  should 
be  glad  to  have  an  interview  with  him.  They  met  at  Lord 
Wharncliffe's  house  and  had  a  long  conversation,  in  the  course 
of  which  Taylor  gave  him  to  understand  that  it  was  quite 
true  that  the  King  had  consented  to  every  thing  about  the 
creation  of  Peers,  but  multa  gemerts,  and  that  he  was  much 
alarmed,  and  could  not  endure  the  thought  of  this  measure. 
The  end  was  that  a  memorandum  was  drawn  up  of  the  con- 
versation, and  of  Wharncliffe's  sentiments  and  intentions, 
which  were  much  the  same  as  those  he  had  put  forth  at  the 
time  of  the  old  negotiations.  This  was  taken  away  by  Taylor 
and  shown  to  the  King,  and  copies  of  it  were  forwarded  to 
Grey,  Brougham,  and  Melbourne.  The  next  day  Wharncliffe 
dined  with  the  King,  and  after  dinner  his  Majesty  took  him 
aside  and  said :  "  I  have  seen  your  paper,  and  I  agree  witli 
every  word  you  say :  we  are  indeed  in  a  scrape,  and  we  must 
get  out  of  it  as  we  can.  I  only  wish  everybody  was  as  reason- 
able and  as  moderate  as  you,  and  then  we  might  do  so  perhaps 
without  difficulty."  That  the  King  is  alarmed  is  pretty  clear, 
but  it  is  more  probable  that  his  alarm  may  influence  his 
Ministers  than  himself,  and  it  looks  very  much  as  if  it  had 
done  so.  Sir  H.  Taylor  likewise  told  Wharncliffe  that  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  had  written  a  letter  which  had  been  laid 
before  the  King,  and  had  given  him  great  offense,  and  that  it 
certainly  was  such  a  letter  as  was  unbecoming  any  subject  to 
write.  This  letter  is  supposed  to  have  been  addressed  to 
Strangford ;  it  got  into  Londonderry's  hands,  and  he  laid  it 
before  the  King  (upon  the  occasion  of  his  going  with  some 
address  to  Brighton),  who  desired  it  might  be  left  with  him 
till  the  next  day.  The  reason  why  they  think  it  was  Strang- 
ford is  that  the  word  "Viscount"  was  apparent  at  the  bot- 
tom, but  the  name  was  erased.  In  the  mean  time  Harrowby 
has  had  some  conversation  with  Lord  Lansdowne,  who  pressed 
the  necessity  of  making  a  demonstration  of  their  strength, 
and  added  that  if  the  Archbishop  could  be  induced  to  declare 
himself  that  would  be  sufficient.  Lord  Harrowby  is  accord- 
ingly working  incessantly  upon  the  Archbishop  on  the  one 
hand,  while  he  exhorts  to  patience  and  reliance  on  the  other. 
Yesterday  he  took  a  high  tone  with  Lord  Lansdowne,  told 
him  that  he  had,  as  he  firmly  believed,  as  many  as  twenty-five 
Lords,  lay  and  spiritual,  with  him,  which  would  make  a  differ- 


ISH.'.]  WELLINGTON  AND    WHARNCLIFFK  57 

encs  of  fifty,  but  that  as  to  a  public  irrevocable  pledge,  it  was 
not  to  be  had,  and  that  Lord  Grey  must  place  confidence  in 
his  belief  and  reliance  upon  his  exertions,  or,  if  not,  he  must 
take  his  own  course.  Upon  Lord  Grey's  meeting  with  him, 
and  the  Archbishop's  being  brought  to  the  post,  the  matter 
now  hinges. 

In  the  mean  time  I  have  discovered  the  cause  of  the  Duke 
of  Wellington's  peevish  reply  to  Wharncliffe,  and  the  reason 
why  Lord  Harrowby's  letter  to  Lord  Bagot  was  unanswered 
for  ten  days,  and  then  couched  in  terms  so  different  from  what 
might  have  been  expected.  Lord  Howe  was  at  Bliffield  at  the 
time,  and  they,  between  them,  sent  Harrowby's  letter  up  to 
the  Duke  of  Wellington,  who  of  course  wrote  his  sentiments 
in  reph7.  For  this  they  waited,  and  on  this  Lord  Bagot  acted. 
My  brother  told  me  yesterday  that  the  Duke  had  seen  the 
letter,  and  that  Lord  Howe  had  been  the  person  who  sent  it 
him.  This  explains  it  all.  "Wharncliffe's  letter  was  but  an- 
other version  of  Lord  Harrowby's,  and  he  had  therefore  in  fact 
seen  it  before,  but  seen  it  addressed  to  those  whom  he  con- 
sidered bound  to  him  and  his  views,  and  I  have  no  doubt  he 
was  both  angry  and  jealous  at  Lord  Harrowby's  interference. 
Nothing  could  be  more  uncandid  and  unjustifiable  than  Lord 
Bagot's  conduct,  for  he  never  asked  Lord  Harrowby's  leave 
to  communicate  the  letter,  nor  told  him  that  he  had  done  so  ; 
on  the  contrary,  he  gave  him  to  understand  that  the  delay  (for 
which  he  made  many  apologies)  was  owing  to  his  reflection 
and  his  consulting  his  brother,  the  bishop.  The  l)uke,  no 
doubt,  gave  him  his  own  sentiments;  yet,  in  his  letter  to 
Wharncliffe,  he  says,  "  he  has  not  endeavored  to  influence  any- 
body, nor  shall  he  ;  "  and  at  the  same  time  eludes  the  essen- 
tial question  "  whether  he  will  support  in  Committee."  So 
much  for  Tory  candor.  As  to  the  Duke,  he  is  evidently 
piqued  and  provoked  to  the  quick ;  his  love  of  power  and  au- 
thority are  as  great  as  ever,  and  he  can't  endure  to  see  any- 
body withdrawn  from  his  influence ;  provoked  with  himself 
and  with -everybody  else,  his  mind  is  clouded  by  passion  and 
prejudice,  and  the  consequences  are  the  ill-humor  he  displays 
and  the  abominable  nonsense  he  writes,  and  yet  the  great  mass 
of  these  Tories  follow  the  Duke,  go  where  he  will,  let  the 
consequences  be  what  they  may,  and  without  requiring  even 
a  reason ;  sic  vult  sicjubet  is  enongh  for  them.  One  thing 
that  gives  me  hopes  is  the  change  in  the  language  of  the 
friends  of  Government  out-of-doors — Dover,  for  instance, 


58  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

who  has  been  one  of  the  noisiest  of  the  bawlers  for  Peers. 
I  walked  with  him  from  the  House  of  Lords  the  night  before 
last,  and  he  talked  only  of  the  break-up  of  the  199,  and  of  the 
activity  of  Harrowby  and  Wharncliffe  and  its  probable  effects. 

February  14^A. — On  Saturday  evening  I  found  Melbourne 
at  the  Home  Office  in  his  lazy,  listening,  silent  humor,  dis- 
posed to  hear  every  thing  and  to  say  very  little ;  told  me  that 
Dover  and  Sefton  were  continually  at  the  Chancellor  to  make 
Peers,  and  that  they  both,  particularly  the  latter,  had  great 
influence  with  him.  Brougham  led  by  Dover  and  Sefton ! ! 
I  tried  to  impress  upon  him  the  necessity  of  givingH  arrow  by 
credit,  and  not  exacting  what  was  not  to  be  had,  viz.,  the 
pledges  of  the  anti-Reformers  to  vote  for  the  second  reading. 
He  owned  that  in  their  case  he  would  not  pledge  himself 
either.  I  put  before  him  as  strongly  as  I  could  all  the  various 
arguments  for  resisting  this  desperate  measure  of  making 
Peers  (to  which  he  was  well  inclined  to  assent),  and  pressed 
upon  him  the  importance  of  not  exasperating  the  Tories  and 
the  Conservative  party  to  the  last  degree,  and  placing  such 
an  impassable  barrier  between  public  men  on  both  sides  as 
should  make  it  impossible  for  them  to  reunite  for  their  com- 
mon interest  and  security  -hereafter. 

In  the  evening  I  got  a  message  from  Palmerston  to  beg  I 
would  call  on  him,  which  I  did  at  the  Foreign  Office  yes- 
terday. He  is  infinitely  more  alert  than  Melbourne,  and 
more  satisfactory  to  talk  to,  because  he  enters  with  more 
warmth  and  more  detail  into  the  subject.  He  began  by 
referring  to  the  list  of  Peers  likely  to  vote  for  the  second 
reading,  which  I  showed  to  him.  At  the  same  time  I  told 
him  that  though  he  might  make  use  of  the  information 
generally  as  far  as  expressing  his  own  belief  that  Lord 
Harrowby  would  have  a  sufficient  following,  he  must  not 
produce  the  list  or  quote  the  names,  for,  in  fact,  not  one  of 
them  had  given  any  authority  to  be  so  counted ;  that  he  must 
be  aware  there  were  persons  who  would  be  glad  to  mar  our 
projects,  and  they  could  not  more  effectually  do  so  than  bv 
conveying  to  these  Peers  the  use  that  had  been  made  of  their 
names.  To  all  this  he  agreed  entirely.  He  then  talked  of 
the  expediency  of  a  declaration  from  Lord  Harrowby,  and 
how  desirable  it  was  that  it  should  be  made  soon,  and  be  sup- 
ported  by  as  many  as  could  be  induced  to  come  forward ;  that 
Lord  Grey  had  said  to  him  very  lately  that  he  really  believed 
he  should  be  obliged  to  create  Peers.  I  said  that  my  per 


1832.]  LORD  PALMERSTON'S  VIEWS.  59 

suasion  was  that  it  would  be  quite  unnecessary  to  do  so  to 
carry  the  second  reading  ;  that  nothing  was  required  but 
confidence  in  Lord  Harrowby,  and  that  his  character  and 
his  conduct  on  this  occasion  entitled  him  to  expect  it  frcm 
them  ;  that  if  they  were  sincere  in  their  desire  to  avoid  this 
measure  they  would  trust  to  his  exertions  ;  that  I  knew  very 
well  the  efforts  that  were  made  to  force  this  measure  on 
Lord  Grey ;  that  it  was  in  furtherance  of  this  that  Dun- 
combe's  1  ridiculous  affair  in  the  House  of  Commons  had 
been  got  up,  which  had  been  such  a  complete  failure ;  but 
that  I  could  not  believe  Lord  Grey  would  suffer  himself  to 
be  bullied  into  it  by  such  despicable  means,  and  by  the 
clamor  of  such  men  as  Buncombe  and  O'Connell,  urged  on 
by  friends  of  his  own.  He  said  this  was  very  true,  but  the 
fact  was  they  could  not  risk  the  rejection  of  the  Bill  again ; 
that  he  knew  from  a  variety  of  communications  that  an  ex- 
plosion would  inevitably  follow  its  being  thrown  out  on  the 
second  reading ;  that  he  had  had  letters  from  Scotland  and 
other  places,  and  had  no  doubt  that  such  would  be  the  case. 
I  said  that  he  would  find  it  very  difficult  to  persuade  our 
friends  of  this,  and  it  appeared  to  me  as  clear  as  possible  that 
the  feeling  for  the  Bill  and  the  excitement  had  subsided ;  that 
they  might  be  to  a  certain  degree  renewed  by  its  rejection, 
but  no  man  could  doubt  that  modifications  in  it,  which  would 
have  been  impossible  a  few  months  ago,  would  now  be 
easy  ;  that  if  it  was  not  for  that  unfortunate  declaration  of 
Lord  Grey,  by  which  he  might  consider  himself  bound,  he 
might  safely  consent  to  such  changes  aa  would  make  the 
adjustment  of  the  question  no  difficult  matter ;  that  with 
regard  to  the  rejection  of  the  Bill,  whatever  excitement  it 
might  produce,  it  was  evident  the  Government  had  an  im- 
mediate remedy ;  they  had  only  to  prorogue  Parliament 
for  a  week  and  make  their  Peers,  and  they  would  then  have 
an  excellent  pretext — indeed,  so  good  a  one  that  it  was  in- 
conceivable to  me  that  they  should  hesitate  for  a  moment  in 
adopting  that  course.  This  he  did  not  deny.  I  then  told 
him  of  the  several  conversations  between  Lord  Harrowby 

1  [Duncombe  brought  forward  a  petition  from  six  men  at  Barnet  complaining 
that  they  had  been  entrapped  into  signing  Lord  Verulam's  and  Lord  Salisbury's 
address  to  the  King.  The  object  was  to  produce  a  discussion  about  the  Peers. 
It  totally  failed,  but  it  was  got  up  with  an  openness  that  was  indecent  by  Dur- 
ham and  that  crew,  who  were  all  (Durham,  Sefton,  Mulgrave,  Dover)  undei 
the  gallery  to  hear  it.  The  thing  was  ridiculed  by  Peel,  fell  flat  upon  the 
House,  ancl  excited  disgust  and  contempt  out  of  it.] 


SO  REIGN   0*'  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

and  Lords  Grey  and  Lansdowne,  and  mine  with  Lord  Grey ; 
that  Lord  Harrowby  protested  against  Lord  Grey's  avail- 
ing- himself  of  any  disunion  among  the  Opposition  (produced 
by  his  support  of  the  second  reading)  to  carry  those  points, 
to  resist  which  would  be  the  sole  object  of  Lord  Harrow- 
by  in  seceding  from  his  party ;  and  that  Lord  Grey  had 
eaid  he  could  not  make  a  sham  resistance.  Palmerston  said : 
"•  We  have  brought  in  a  Bill  which  we  have  made  as  good 
as  we  can  ;  it  is  for  you  to  propose  any  alterations  you  wish 
to  make  in  it,  and,  if  you  can  beat  us,  well  and  good.  There 
are  indeed  certain  things  which,  if  carried  against  us,  would 
be  so  fatal  to  the  principle  of  the  Bill  that  Lord  Grey 
would  not  consider  it  worth  carrying  if  so  amended  ;  but 
on  other  details  he  is  ready  to  submit,  if  they  should  be 
carried  against  him."  I  said  that  would  not  do,  that  I  must 
refer  him  to  the  early  negotiations  and  the  disposition  which 
was  then  expressed  to  act  upon  a  principle  of  mutual  conces- 
sion ;  that  when  Lord  Harrowby  and  his  friends  were  pre- 
pared to  concede  to  its  fullest  extent  the  principle  of  dis- 
iranchisement  (though  they  might  propose  alterations  in  a 
few  particulars),  they  had  a  right  to  expect  that  the  Govern- 
ment should  surrender  without  fighting  some  of  those  equiva- 
lents or  compensations  which  they  should  look  for  iu  the 
alterations  or  additions  they  might  propose.  He  said  that 
"  while  Lord  Harrowby  was  afraid  that  Ministers  might  avail 
themselves  of  his  weakness  to  carry  their  details,  they  were 
afraid  lest  Lord  Harrowby  and  his  friends  should  unite  with 
the  ultra-Tories  to  beat  them  in  Committee  on  some  of  the 
essential  clauses  of  the  Bill."  I  replied,  then  it  was  fear  for 
fear,  and  under  the  circumstances  the  best  thing  was  an 
understanding  that  each  party  should  act  toward  the  other 
in  a  spirit  of  good  faith,  and  without  taking  any  accidental 
advantage  that  might  accrue  either  way.  We  then  discussed 
the  possibility  of  an  agreement  upon  the  details,  and  he 
inquired  what  they  would  require.  I  told  him  that  they 
would  require  an  alteration  of  Schedule  B  to  exclude  the 
town  voters  from  county  representation,  perhaps  tg  vary  the 
franchise,  and  some  other  things,  with  regard  to  which  I  could 
not  speak  positively  at  the  moment.  He  said  he  thought 
some  alteration  might  be  made  in  Schedule  B,  particularly 
in  giving  all  the  towns  double  members,  by  cutting  oif  the 
lower  ones  that  had  one ;  that  it  was  intended  no  man  should 
have  a  vote  for  town  and  county  on  the  same  qualification, 


iS.TJ.]  THE   DUKE  OF   RICHMOND'S  VIEWS.  61 

and  he  believed  there  were  very  few  who  would  possess  the 
double  right.  That,  I  said,  would  make  it  more  easy  to  give 
up,  and  it  was  a  thing  the  others  laid  great  stress  upon.  He 
seemed  to  think  it  might  be  done.  As  to  the  £10,  he  said  he 
had  at  first  been  disposed  to  consider  it  too  low,  but  he  had 
changed  his  mind,  and  now  doubted  if  it  would  not  turn  out  to 
be  too  high.  We  then  talked  of  the  metropolitan  members, 
to  which  I  said  undoubtedly  they  wished  to  strike  them  off, 
but  they  knew  very  well  the  Government  desired  it  equally. 
We  agreed  that  I  should  get  from  Lord  Harrowby  specifically 
what  he  would  require,  and  he  would  give  me  in  return  what 
concessions  the  Government  would  probably  be  disposed  to 
make;  that  these  should  be  communicated  merely  as  the 
private  opinions  of  individuals,  and  not  as  formal  proposals ; 
and  we  should  try  and  blend  them  together  into  some  feasible 
compromise. 

I  afterward  saw  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  who  said  that 
Dover  and  Sefton  had  both  attacked  him  for  being  against 
making  Peers,  and  he  should  like  to  know  how  they  knew  it. 
I  told  him,  from  the  Chancellor,  to  be  sure,  and  added  how 
they  were  always  working  at  him  and  the  influence  they  had 
with  him.  He  said  the  Chancellor's  being  for  making  Peers 
was  not  enough  to  carry  the  question ;  that  if  it  was  done  it 
must  be  by  a  minute  of  the  Cabinet,  with  the  names  of  the 
dissentients  appended  to  it;  and  then  the  King  must  deter- 
mine ;  that  if  the  dissentients  seceded  upon  it  it  would  be 
impossible.  He  recollected,  when  there  was  a  question  of 
making  Peers  on  the  Catholic  question  by  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington, that  he  and  some  others  had  resolved,  should  it  have 
been  done,  to  avail  themselves  of  the  power  of  the  House  to 
come  down  day  after  day  and  move  adjournments  before  any 
of  the  new  Peers  could  take  their  seats ;  that  the  same  course 
might  be  adopted  now,  though  it  would  produce  a  revolution. 
I  told  him  that  I  had  little  ckmbt  there  were  men  who  would 
not  scruple  to  adopt  any  course,  however  violent,  that  the 
power  of  Parliament  would  admit  of;  that  there  were  several 
who  were  of  opinion  that  the  creation  of  Peers  would  at  once 
lay  the  Constitution  prostrate  and  bring  about  a  revolution 
that  they  considered  it  would  be  not  a  remote  and  uncertain, 
but  a  sure  and  proximate  event,  and  if  by  accelerating  it 
they  could  crush  their  opponents  they  would  do  so  without 
hesitation. 

In  the  mean  time  the  cholera  has  made  its  appearance  in 


63  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVIT. 

London,  at  Rotherhithe,  Limehouse,  and  in  a  ship  off  Green- 
wich— in  all  seven  cases.  These  are  among  the  lowest  and 
most  wretched  classes,  chiefly  Irish,  and  a  more  lamentable 
exhibition  of  human  misery  than  that  given  by  the  medical 
men  who  called  at  the  Council  Office  yesterday  I  never  heard. 
They  are  in  the  most  abject  state  of  poverty,  without  beds  to 
lie  upon.  The  men  live  by  casual  labor,  are  employed  by 
the  hour,  and  often  get  no  more  than  four  or  five  hours' 
employment  in  the  course  of  the  week.  They  are  huddled 
and  crowded  together  by  families  in  the  same  room,  not  as 
permanent  lodgers,  but  procuring  a  temporary  shelter;  in 
short,  in  the  most  abject  state  of  physical  privation  and 
moral  degradation  that  can  be  imagined.  On  Saturday  we 
had  an  account  of  one  or  more  cases.  We  sent  instantly 
down  to  inspect  the  district  and  organize  a  Board  of  Health. 
A  meeting  was  convened,  and  promises  given  that  all  things 
needful  should  be  done,  but  as  they  met  at  a  public-house 
they  all  got  drunk  and  did  nothing.  We  have  sent  down 
members  of  the  Board  of  Health  to  make  preparations  and 
organize  boards ;  but,  if  the  disease  rapidly  spreads,  no  hu- 
man power  can  arrest  its  progress  through  such  an  Augean 
stable. 

February  14£//. — Dined  with  Lord  Harrowby,  and  commu- 
nicated conversation  with  Palmerston  and  Melbourne.  He 
has  not  been  able  to  decide  the  Archbishop,  who  is  on  and  off, 
and  can't  make  up  his  mind.  Lord  Harrowby  is  going  to 
Lord  Grey  to  talk  with  him.  The  Tories  obstinate  as  mules. 
The  Duke  of  Buccleuch,  who  had  got  Harrowby's  letter,  and 
copied  it  himself  that  he  might  know  it  by  heart,  has  made  up 
his  mind  to  vote  the  other  way,  as  he  did  before ;  Lord  Wal- 
lace (after  a  long  correspondence)  the  same.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  they  animate  one  another,  and  their  cry  is 
"  to  stick  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington."  The  cholera  is  estab- 
lished, and  yesterday  formal  communications  were  made  to 
the  Lord  Mayor  and  to  the  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign 
Affairs  that  London  was  no  longer  healthy. 

February  Yith. — -Wharncliffe  came  to  town  the  night  before 
last,  it  having  been  settled  that  Harrowby  was  to  go  to  Lord 
Grey  yesterday  morning.  After  consultation  we  agreed  he 
had  better  go  alone,  that  it  would  be  less  formal,  and  that 
Lord  Grey  would  be  more  disposed  to  open  himself.  The 
same  evening,  at  Madame  de  Lieven's  ball,  Melbourne  and 
Palmerston  both  told  me  that  Grey  was  in  an  excellent  dispo- 


1832.]  MINUTE   DRAWN    UP.  63 

sition.  However,  yesterday  morning1  Harrowby  had  such  a 
headache  that  he  was  not  fit  to  go  alone,  so  the  two  went. 
Nothing  could  be  more  polite  than  Grey,  and  on  the  whole 
the  interview  was  satisfactory.  Nothing  was  agreed  upon,  all 
left  dans  le  vague ;  but  a  disposition  to  mutual  confidence 
was  evinced,  and  I  should  think  it  pretty  safe  that  no  Peers 
will  be  made.  Lord  Grey  told  them  that  if  they  could  relieve 
him  from  the  necessity  of  creating  Peers  he  should  be  sincerely 
obliged  to  them,  showed  them  a  letter  from  the  King  con- 
taining the  most  unlimited  power  for  the  purpose,  and  said 
that,  armed  with  that  authority,  if  the  Bill  could  be  passed  in 
no  other  way,  it  must  be  so.  A  minute  was  drawn  up  to  this 
effect,  of  which  Wharncliffe  showed  me  a  copy  last  night : 

"  Lords  Harrowby  and  Wharncliffe  cannot  give  any  names, 
or  pledge  themselves  to  any  particular  persons  or  numbers 
who  will  support  their  views,  but  they  have  no  doubt  in  their 
own  minds  that  there  will  be,  in  the  event  of  no  creation  of 
Peers,  a  sufficient  number  to  carry  the  second  reading  of  the 
Bill.  In  voting  themselves  for  the  second  reading,  their  in- 
tention is  to  propose  such  alterations  in  Committee  as,  in  their 
opinion,  can  alone  render  it  a  measure  fit  to  be  passed  into 
law,  and  in  the  eveat  of  their  being  unable  to  effect  the 
changes  they  deem  indispensable,  they  reserve  to  themselves 
the  power  of  opposing  the  Bill  in  its  subsequent  stages.  Lord 
Grey  considers  the  great  principles  of  the  Bill  of  such  vital 
importance  that  he  could  not  agree  to  any  alteration  in  them, 
but  admits  that  a  modification  of  its  details  need  not  be  fatal 
to  it,  reserving  to  himself,  if  any  of  its  vital  principles  should 
be  touched,  the  power  of  taking  such  ulterior  measures  as  he 
may  find  necessary  to  insure  its  success.  Lords  Harrowby 
and  Wharncliffe  are  prepared  to  make  a  declaration  of  their 
sentiments  and  intentions  in  the  House  of  Lords  at  a  proper 
time,  that  time  to  be  a  subject  of  consideration ;  and  in  the 
event  of  their  having  reason  to  believe  that  their  present  ex- 
pectations are  not  likely  to  be  fulfilled,  they  will  feel  bound  to 
give  Lord  Grey  in  formation  thereof,  in  order  that  he  may  take 
such  measures  as  he  may  think  right."  l 

At  present  the  principal  difficulty  promises  to  be  the  £10 
clause.  Lord  Grey  seemed  to  think  this  could  not  be  altered. 
Wharncliffe  asked  if  it  might  not  be  modified,  and  so  settled 
as  to  secure  its  being  a  bond  fide  £10  clause,  from  which  Lord 
Grey  did  not  dissent,  but  answered  rather  vaguely. 
1  This  is  the  substance,  not  n  textual  copy. 


01  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAI   XVII. 

In  the  mean  time  I  think  some  progress  is  made  in  the 
\vork  of  conversion.  Harris  has  gone  back,  and  Wilton, 
whom  I  always  doubted.  I  doubt  anybody  within  the  im- 
mediate sphere  of  the  Duke,  but  Wynford  is  well  disposed, 
and  the  Archbishop  has  nearly  given  in.  His  surrender  would 
clinch  the  matter.  I  am  inclined  to  think  we  shall  get  through 
the  second  reading.  Lord  Grey  was  attacked  by  Madame  de 
Lieven  the  other  day,  who  told  him  he  was  naturally  all 
that  is  right-minded  and  good,  but  was  supposed  to  be  in- 
fluenced against  his  own  better  judgment  by  those  about  him. 
She  also  said  something  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington  about 
Lord  Harrowby,  to  which  he  replied  that  Lord  Harrowby 
"  6tait  une  mauvaise  tete  !  "  Very  amusing  from  him,  but  he 
is  provoked  to  death  that  anybody  should  venture  to  desert 
from  him. 

The  cholera  has  produced  more  alertness  than  alarm  here  ; 
in  fact,  at  present,  it  is  a  mere  trifle — in  three  days  twenty- 
eight  persons.  Nothing  like  the  disorders  which  rage  un- 
heeded every  year  and  every  day  among  the  lower  orders. 
It  is  its  name,  its  suddenness,  and  its  frightful  symptoms, 
that  terrify.  The  investigations,  however,  into  the  condition 
of  the  different  parishes  have  brought  to  light  dreadful  cases 
of  poverty  and  misery.  A  man  came  yesterday  from  Bethnal 
Green  with  an  account  of  that  district.  They  are  all  weavers, 
forming  a  sort  of  separate  community  ;  there  they  are  bornr 
there  they  live  and  labor,  and  there  they  die.  They  neither 
migrate  nor  change  their  occupation ;  they  can  do  nothing 
else.  They  have  increased  in  a  ratio  at  variance  with  any 
principles  of  population,  having  nearly  tripled  in  twenty 
years,  from  22,000  to  62,000.  They  are  for  the  most  part  out 
of  employment,  and  can  get  none ;  1,100  are  crammed  into 
the  poor-house,  five  or  six  in  a  bed ;  6,000  received  parochial 
relief.  The  parish  is  in  debt ;  every  day  adds  to  the  number 
of  paupers  and  diminishes  that  of  rate-payers.  These  are 
principally  small  shopkeepers,  who  are  beggared  by  the  rates. 
The  district  is  in  a  complete  state  of  insolvency  and  hope- 
less poverty ;  yet  they  multiply  ;  and,  while  the  people  look 
squalid  and  dejected,  as  if  borne  down  by  their  wretchedness 
and  destitution,  the  children  thrive  and  are  healthy.  Govern- 
ment is  ready  to  interpose  with  assistance,  but  what  can  Gov- 
ernment do  ?  We  asked  the  man  who  came  what  could  be 
done  for  them.  He  said,  "  employment,"  and  employment  is 
impossible. 


1832.1  CONVERSATION   WITH   MELBOURNE.  65 

February  2Qth. — Lord  Grey  was  very  much  pleased  with 
the  result  of  his  interview,  and  expresses  unbounded  reliance 
on  Lord  Harrowby's  honor.  The  ultras,  of  course,  will  give 
him  no  credit,  and  don't  believe  he  can  command  votes 
enough  ;  "  1'affaire  marche,  mais  lentement,"  and  the  seceders 
(or  those  we  hope  will  be  so)  will  not  declare  themselves  posi- 
tively. There  is  no  prevailing  upon  them.  The  Archbishop 
is  with  us  one  day,  and  then  doubts,  though  I  think  we  shall 
have  him  at  last.  A  good  deal  of  conversation  passed  be- 
tween Grey  and  Harrowby,  which  the  latter  considers  confi- 
dential and  won't  repeat.  It  was  about  the  details  ;  the  sub- 
stance of  the  minute  he  feels  at  liberty  to  communicate.  By 
way  of  an  episode,  news  came  last  night  of  an  insurrection 
of  the  slaves  in  Jamaica,  in  which  fifty-two  plantations  had 
been  destroyed.  It  was  speedily  suppressed  by  Willoughny 
Cotton,  and  the  ringleaders  were  executed  by  martial  law. 

February  23  d. — At  Court  yesterday  ;  long  conversation 
with  Melbourne,  and  in  the  evening  with  Charles  Wood  and 
Richmond,  who  is  more  alarmed  about  the  Peers.  Mel- 
bourne had  got  an  idea  that  Lord  Harrowby's  letter,  which 
had  been  reported,  if  not  shown,  to  the  Government,  had 
done  a  great  deal  of  harm,  inasmuch  -as  it  set  forth  so 
strongly  the  same  arguments  to  the  Tories  to  show  them 
the  danger  of  letting  Peers  be  made  that  Durham  and  Co. 
make  use  of  as  an  argument  for  the  same.  I  promised  to 
show  it  him,  and  replied  that  they  could  not  expect  Lord 
Harrowby  to  do  any  thing  but  employ  the  arguments  that 
are  most  likely  to  take  effect  with  these  people,  but  they  are 
not  put  in  an  offensive  manner.  Melbourne  said  that  the 
King  is  more  reconciled  to  the  measure,  i.  e.,  that  they  have 
got  the  foolish  old  man  in  town  and  can  talk  him  over  more 
readily.  A  discussion  last  night  about  the  propriety  of  mak- 
ing a  declaration  to-day  in  the  House  of  Lords,  when  the  Duke 
of  Rutland  presents  a  petition  against  Reform.  The  Arch- 
bishop will  not  decide ;  there  is  no  moving  him.  Curious  that 
a  Dr.  Howley,  the  other  day  Canon  of  Christ  Church,  a  very 
ordinary  man,  should  have  in  his  hands  the  virtual  decision  of 
one  of  the  most  momentous  matters  that  ever  occupied  public 
attention.  There  is  no  doubt  that  his  decision  would  decide 
the  business  eo  far.  Up  to  this  time  certainly  Harrowby 
and  Wharncliffe  have  no  certainty  of  a  sufficient  number  for 
the  second  reading;  but  I  think  they  will  have  enough  at 
last. 


C6  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [Cn.vr.  XVII. 

February  24?A. — Harrowby  and  Wharncliffe  agreed,  if  the 
Duke  of  Rutland  on  presenting  his  decision  gave  them  a  good 
opportunity,  they  would  speak.  It  was  a  very  good  one,  for 
the  petition  turned  out  to  be  one  for  a  moderate  Reform,  more 
in  their  sense  than  in  the  Duke's  own  ;  but  the  moment  it  was 
read  Kenyon  jumped  up.  Harrowby  thought  he  was  going 
to  speak  upon  it,  whereas  he  presented  another ;  and  I  believe 
he  was  put  up  by  the  Duke  to  stop  any  discussion. 

In  the  evening  went  to  Lord  Holland's,  when  he  and  she 
asked  me  about  the  letter.  Somebody  had  given  abstracts  of 
it,  with  the  object  of  proving  to  Lord  Grey  that  Harrowby 
had  been  uncandid,  or  something  like  it,  and.  had  held  out  to 
the  Tories  that  if  they  would  adopt  his  line  they  would  turn 
out  the  Government.  Holland  and  the  rest  fancied  the  letter- 
had  been  written  since  the  interview,  but  I  told  them  it  was 
three  weeks  before,  and  I  endeavored  to  explain  that  the  ab- 
stracts must  be  taken  in  connection  not  only  with  the  rest  of 
the  text,  but  with  the  argument.  Holland  said  Lord  Grey 
meant  to  ask  Harrowby  for  the  letter.  From  thence  I  went  to 
Harrowby,  and  told  him  this.  He  said  he  would  not  show  it, 
that  Grey  had  no  right  to  ask  for  a  private  letter  written  by 
him  weeks  before  to  one  of  his  friends,  and  it  was  beneath 
him  to  answer  for  and  explain  any  thing  he  had  thought  fit  to 
say.  But  he  has  done  what  will  probably  answer  as  well,  for 
he  has  given  Ebrington  a  copy  of  it  for  the  express  purpose 
of  going  to  Lord  Grey  and  explaining  any  thing  that  appears 
ambiguous  to  him.  As  the  business  develops  itself,  and  the 
time  approaches,  communication  becomes  more  open  and 
frequent ;  the  Tories  talk  with  great  confidence  of  their 
majority,  and  the  ultra- Whigs  are  quite  ready  to  believe  them  ; 
the  two  extreme  ends  are  furious.  Our  list  up  to  this  day 
presents  a  result  of  forty-three  votes  to  thirty-seven  doubt- 
ful, out  of  which  it  is  hard  if  a  majority  cannot  be  got.  I 
have  no  doubt  now  that  they  will  take  a  very  early  oppor- 
tunity of  making  a  declaration.  Peel,  in  the  other  House,  is 
doing  what  he  can  to  inflame  and  divide,  and  repress  any 
Bpirit  of  conciliation.  Nothing  is  sure  in  his  policy  but  that 
it  revolves  round  himself  as  the  centre,  and  is  influenced  by 
some  view  which  he  takes  of  his  own  future  advantage,  prob- 
ably the  rallying  of  the  Conservative  party  (as  they  call 
themselves,  though  they  are  throwing  away  every  thing  into 
confusion  and  sinking  every  thing  by  their  obstinacy)  and  his 
being  at  the  head  of  it.  He  made  \  most  furious  and  mis 
chievous  speech. 


1832.J  A   GARBLED   VERSION.  67 

February  ZQth. — Ebrington  took  Harrowby's  letter  to 
Lord  Grey,  who  was  satisfied,  but  not  pleased ;  the  date  and 
the  circumstances  (which  were  explained)  removed  all  bad 
impressions  from  his  mind.  Since  this  a  garbled  version  (or 
rather  extracts)  has  appeared  in  the  Times,  which  endeavors 
to  make  a  great  stir  about  it.  Harrowby  was  very  much 
annoyed,  and  thought  of  sending  the  letter  itself  to  the 
Times  to  be  published  at  once ;  but  Haddington  and  I  both 
urged  him  not,  and  last  night  he  put  a  contradiction  in  the 
Globe.  I  have  little  doubt  that  this  as  well  as  the  foraier 
extracts  came  from  the  shop  of  Durham  &  Co.,  and  so 
Melbourne  told  me  he  thought  likewise.  There  was  a  great 
breeze  at  the  last  Cabinet  dinner  between  Durham  and  Rich- 
mond again  on  the  old  subject — the  Peers.  I  believe  they  will 
now  take  their  chance.  Our  list  presents  forty-seven  sure 
votes  besides  the  doubtful,  but  not  many  pledges.  As  to  me, 
I  am  really  puzzled  what  to  wish  for — that  is,  for  the  success 
of  which  party,  being  equally  disgusted  with  the  folly  of  both. 
My  old  aversion  for  the  High  Tories  returns  when  I  see  their 
conduct  on  this  occasion.  The  obstinacy  of  the  Duke,  the 
selfishness  of  Peel,  the  pert  vulgarity  of  Croker,  and  the  in- 
capacity of  the  rest,  are  set  in  constant  juxtaposition  with  the 
goodness  of  the  cause  they  are  now  defending,  but  which  they 
will  mar  by  their  way  of  defending  it.  A  man  is  wanting, 
a  fresh  man,  with  vigor  enough  to  govern,  and  who  will  rally 
round  him  the  temperate  and  moderate  of  different  parties — 
men  unfettered  by  prejudices,  connections,  and  above  all  by 
pledges,  expressed  or  implied,  and  who  can  and  will  address 
themselves  to  the  present  state  and  real  wants  of  the  country, 
neither  terrified  into  concession  by  the  bullying  of  the  press 
and  the  rant  of  public  meetings  and  associations,  nor  fondly 
lingering  over  by-gone  systems  of  government  and  law.  That 
the  scattered  materials  exist  is  probable,  but  the  heated  pas- 
sion of  the  times  has  produced  so  much  repulsion  among 
these  various  atoms  that  it  is  difficult  to  foresee  when  a  coolei 
temperature  may  permit  their  cohesion  into  any  efficient  mass 

March  6th. — The  ultra-Whigs  and  ultra-Tories  are  both 
outrageous.  Diy  after  day  the  Times  puts  forth  paragraphs, 
evidently  manufactured  in  the  Durham  shop,  about  Harrowby's 
letter,  and  yesterday  there  was  one  which  exhibited  their 
mortification  and  rage  so  clearly  as  to  be  quite  amusing, 
praising  the  Duke  and  the  Tories,  and  abusing  Harrowby  and 
Wharncliffe  and  the  moderates.  In  the  mean  time,  while  Lord 


68  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

Grey  is  negotiating  with  Harrowby  for  the  express  purpose 
of  avoiding  the  necessity  of  making  Peers,  Durham,  his  col- 
league and  son-in-law,  in  conjunction  with  Dover,  is  (or  has 
been)  going  about  with  a  paper  for  signature  by  Peers,  being 
a  requisition  to  Lord  Grey  to  make  new  Peers,  inviting  every- 
body he  could  find  to  sign  this  by  way  of  assisting  that  course 
of  bullying  and  violence  he  has  long  pursued,  but  happily  in 
vain.  Lord  Grey  is,  I  believe,  really  disgusted  with  all  these 
proceedings ;  he  submits  and  does  nothing.  Richmond  quar- 
rels with  Durham,  Melbourne  damns  him,  and  the  rest  hate 
him.  But  there  he  is,  frowning,  sulking,  bullying,  and  med- 
dling, and  doing  all  the  harm  he  can.  Never  certainly  was 
there  such  a  Government  as  this,  so  constituted,  so  headed — 
a  chief  with  an  imposing  exterior,  a  commanding  eloquence, 
and  a  character 1  below  contempt,  seduced  and  governed  by 
anybody  who  will  minister  to  his  vanity  and  presume  upon 
his  facility. 

There  has  been  nothing  remarkable  in  either  House  of 
Parliament  but  an  attack  made  by  Londonderry  on  Plunket, 
who  gave  him  so  terrific  a  dressing  that  he  required  to  be  as 
pachydermatous  as  he  is  to  stand  it.  He  is,  however,  a  glut- 
ton, for  he  took  it  all,  and  seemed  to  like  it.  I  dined  with 
Madame  de  Lieven  a  day  or  two  ago,  and  was  talking  to  her 
about  politics  and  political  events,  and  particularly  about  the 
memoirs,  or  journal,  or  whatever  it  be,  that  she  has  written. 
She  said  she  had  done  so  very  irregularly,  but  that  what  she 
regretted  was  not  having  kept  more  exact  records  of  the 
events  and  transactions  of  the  Belgian  question  (which  is  not 
yet  settled),  that  it  was  in  its  circumstances  the  most  curious 
that  could  be,  and  exhibited  more  remarkable  manifestations 
of  character  and  "  du  coeur  humain,"  as  well  as  of  politics 
generally,  than  any  course  of  events  she  knew.  I  asked  her 
why  she  did  not  give  them  now.  She  said  it  was  impossible, 
that  the  "  nuances  "  were  so  delicate  and  so  numerous,  the 
details  so  nice  and  so  varying,  that  unless  caught  at  the 
moment  they  escaped,  and  it  was  impossible  to  collect  them 
again. 

March  §th. — Went  to  Lord  Holland's  the  other  night,  and 
had  a  violent  battle  with  him  on  politics.  Nobody  so  violent 
as  he,  and  curious  as  exhibiting  the  opinions  of  the  ultras  of 
the  party.  About  making  Peers — wanted  to  know  what 

1  By  character  I  mean  what  the  French  call  caractere,  not  that  he  is  wanting 
in  honor  and  honest}',  nor  in  ability,  but  in  resolution  and  strength  of  mind. 


1832.]  THE   EDUCATION   BOARD   IN  IRELAND.  G9 

Harrowby's  real  object  was.  I  told  him  none  but  to  prevent 
what  he  thought  an  enormous  evil.  What  did  it  signify  (he 
said)  whether  Peers  were  made  now  or  later  ?  that  the  pre-s 
ent  House  of  Lords  never  could  go  on  with  a  Reformed  Par- 
liament, it  being  opposed  to  all  the  wants  and  wishes  of  the 
people,  hating  the  abolition  of  tithes,  the  press,  and  the 
French  Revolution,  and  that  in  order  to  make  it  harmonize 
with  the  Reformed  Parliament  it  must  be  amended  by  an  in- 
fusion of  a  more  Liberal  cast.  This  was  the  spirit  of  his 
harangue,  which  might  have  been  easily  answered,  for  it  all 
goes  upon  the  presumption  that  his  party  is  that  which  har- 
monizes with  the  popular  feeling,  and  what  he  means  by  im- 
proving the  character  of  the  House  is  to  add  some  fifty  or 
sixty  men  who  may  be  willing  to  accept  peerages  upon  the 
condition  of  becoming  a  body-guard  to  this  Government. 

The  Times  yesterday  and  the  day  before  attacked  Lord 
Grey  with  a  virulence  and  indecency  about  the  Peers  that  is 
too  much  even  for  those  who  take  the  same  line,  and  he  now 
sees  where  his  subserviency  to  the  press  has  conducted  him. 
In  the  House  of  Commons  the  night  before  last,  Ministers 
would  have  been  beaten  on  the  sugar  duties  if  Baring  Wall, 
who  had  got  ten  people  to  dinner,  had  chosen  to  go  down  in 
time. 

The  principal  subject  of  discussion  this  last  week  has  been 
the  Education  Board  in  Ireland,  the  object  of  which  is  to 
combine  the  education  of  Catholics  and  Protestants  by  an  ar- 
rangement with  regard  to  the  religious  part  of  their  instruc- 
tion that  may  be  compatible  with  the  doctrines  and  practice 
of  both.  This  arrangement  consists  in  there  being  only  cer- 
tain selections  from  the  Bible,  which  are  admitted  generally, 
while  particular  days  and  hours  are  set  apart  for  the  separate 
religious  exercises  of  each  class.  This  will  not  do  for  the 
zealous  Protestants,  who  bellow  for  the  whole  Bible  as  Re- 
formers do  for  the  whole  Bill.  While  the  whole  system  is 
crumbling  to  dust  under  their  feet,  while  the  Church  is  pros- 
trate, property  of  all  kinds  threatened,  and  robbery,  murder, 
starvation,  and  agitation,  rioting  over  the  land,  these  wise 
legislators  are  debating  whethe?  the  brats  at  school  shall  read 
the  whole  Bible  or  only  parts  of  it.  They  do  nothing  but  rave 
of  the  barbarism  and  ignorance  of  the  Catholics ;  they  know 
that  education  alone  can  better  their  moral  condition,  and 
that  their  religious  tenets  prohibit  the  admission  of  any 
system  of  education  (in  which  Protestants  and  Catholics  can 


70  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

be  joined)  except  such  a  one  as  this,  and  yet  they  would 
rather  knock  the  system  on  the  head,  and  prevent  all  the  good 
that  may  flow  from  it,  than  consent  to  a  departure  from  the 
good  old  rules  of  Orange  ascendency  and  Popish  subserviency 
and  degradation,  knowing  too,  above  all,  that  those  who  are 
to  read  and  be  taught  are  equally  indifferent  to  the  whole 
Bible  or  to  parts  of  it,  that  they  comprehend  it  not,  have  no 
clear  and  definite  ideas  on  the  subject  but  as  matter  of  debate, 
vehicle  of  dispute  and  dissension,  and  almost  of  religious  ha- 
tred and  disunion,  and  that  when  once  they  have  escaped  from 
the  trammels  of  their  school,  not  one  in  a  hundred  will  trouble 
his  head  about  the  Bible  at  all,  and  not  one  in  a  thousand  at- 
tend to  its  moral  precepts. 

March  IQth. — Yesterday  morning  Wharncliffe  came  to  me 
to  give  me  an  account  of  the  conversation  the  other  day  be- 
tween him  and  Harrowby  on  one  side  and  Lords  Grey  and 
Lansdowne  on  the  other.  Harrowby  was  headachy  and  out 
of  sorts.  However,  it  went  off  very  satisfactorily  ;  the  list 
was  laid  before  Grey,  who  was  satisfied,  and  no  Peers  are  to 
be  made  before  the  second  reading ;  but  he  said  that  if  the 
Bill  should  be  carried  by  so  small  a  majority  as  to  prove  that 
the  details  could  not  be  carried  in  Committee,  he  must  reserve 
the  power  of  making  Peers  then.  At  this  Harrowby  winced, 
but  Wharncliffe  said  he  thought  it  fair ;  and  in  fact  it  is  only 
in  conformity  with  the  protocol  that  was  drawn  up  at  the  last 
conversation.  They  entered  into  the  details,  and  Lord  Grey 
said  the  stir  that  had  been  made  about  the  metropolitan  mem- 
bers might  raise  difficulties,  and  then  asked  would  they  agree 
to  this,  to  give  members  to  Marylebone  and  throw  over  the 
rest  ?  To  this  Harrowby  would  not  agree,  greatly  to  Wharn- 
cliffe's  annoyance,  who  would  have  agreed,  and  I  think  he 
would  have  been  in  the  right.  It  would  have  been  as  well  to 
have  nailed  Grey  to  this,  and  if  Harrowby  had  not  had  a  head- 
ache I  think  he  would  have  done  so.  With  regard  to  the  £10 
Clause,  Wharncliffe  thinks  they  will  not  object  to  a  modifi- 
cation. Grey  spoke  of  the  press,  and  with  just  wrath  and  in- 
dignation of  the  attacks  on  himself.  On  the  whole  this  was 
good.  The  capture  of  Vandamme  was  the  consequence  of  a 
belly-ache,  and  the  metropolitan  representation  depended  on  a 
headache.  If  the  truth  could  be  ascertained,  perhaps  many 
of  the  greatest  events  in  history  turned  upon  aches  of  one 
sort  or  another.  Montaigne  might  have  written  an  essay 
on  it. 


1S32.J  IRISH   TITHES.  71 

March  ~L'2th. — Durham  made  another  exhibition  of  temper 
at  the  Cabinet  dinner  last  Wednesday.  While  Lord  Grey 
was  saying  something,  he  rudely  interrupted  him,  as  his  cus- 
tom is.  Lord  Grey  said,  "  But,  my  dear  Lambton,  only  hear 
what  I  was  going  to  say,"  when  the  other  jumped  up  and 
said,  "  Oh,  if  I  am  not  to  be  allowed  to  speak  I  may  as  well 
go  away,"  rang  .the  bell,  ordered  his  carriage,  and  marched 
off.  Wharncliffe  came  to  me  yesterday  morning  to  propose 
writing  a  pamphlet  in  answer  to  the  Quarterly  Jteview,  which 
has  got  an  article  against  his  party.  I  suggested  instead 
that  an  attempt  should  be  made  by  Sandon  (who  has  been 
in  some  communication  with  the  editor  about  this  matter) 
to  induce  the  Morning  Herald  to  support  us,  and  make 
that  paper  the  vehicle  of  our  articles.  This  he  agreed  to, 
and  was  to  propose  it  to  Sandon  last  night.  We  have  no 
advocate  in  the  press  ;  the  Whig  and  Tory  papers  are  equally 
violent  against  us.  Yesterday  I  saw  a  letter  which  has 
been  circulated  among  the  Tories,  written  by  young  Lord 
Redesdale  to  Lord  Bathurst,  a  sort  of  counter-argument  to 
Lord  Harrowby's  letter,  although  not  an  answer,  as  it  was 
written  before  he  had  seen  that  document  ;  there  is  very 
little  in  it. 

March  \Qth. — Lord  Grey  made  an  excellent  speech  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  in  reply  to  Aberdeen's  questions  about 
Ancona,  and  Peel  made  another  in  the  House  of  Commons 
on  Irish  Tithes,  smashing  Shiel,  taking  high  ground  and 
a  strong  position,  but  doing  nothing  toward  settling  the 
question.  He  forgets  that  the  system  is  bad,  resting  on 
a  false  foundation,  and  that  it  has  worked  ill  and  been 
bolstered  up  by  him  and  his  party  till  now  it  can  no  longer 
be  supported,  and  it  threatens  to  carry  away  with  it  that 
which  is  good  in  itself.  We  owe  these  things  to  those  who 
willfully  introduced  a  moral  confusion  of  ideas  into  their 
political  machinery,  and,  by  destroying  the  essential  distinc- 
tion between  right  and  wrong,  have  deprived  the  things 
which  are  right  of  the  best  part  of  their  security.  I  have 
never  been  able  to  understand  why  our  system  should  be 
made  to  rest  on  artificial  props  when  it  did  not  require  them, 
nor  the  meaning  of  that  strange  paradox  which  a  certain 
school  of  statesmen  have  always  inculcated,  that  institutions 
of  admitted  excellence  required  to  be  conjoined  with  others 
which  were  founded  in  crime  and  error,  and  which  could  only 
be  supported  by  power.  This  has  brought  about  Reform  ;  it 


72  KEIGN   0?   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

would  be  easy  to  prove  it.  The  Ancona  affair  will  blow  over. 
George  Villiers  writes  me  word  that  it  was  a  little  escapade 
of  P6rier's,  done  in  a  hurry,  a  mistake,  and  yet  he  is  a  very 
able  man.  Talleyrand  told  me  "c'est  une  betise."  Nothing1 
goes  on  well  ;  the  world  is  out  of  joint. 

Fanny  Kemble's  new  tragedy  came  out  last  night  with 
complete  success,  written  when  she  was  seventeen,  an  odd 
play  for  a  girl  to  write.  The  heroine  is  tempted  like  Isabella 
in  "  Measure  for  Measure,"  but  with  a  different  result,  whicli 
result  is  supposed  to  take  place  between  the  acts. 

March  2Qth. — Ten  days  since  I  have  written  any  thing  here, 
but  en  revanche  I  have  written  a  pamphlet.  An  article  ap- 
peared in  the  Quarterly,  attacking  Harrowby  and  his  friends. 
Wharncliffe  was  so  desirous  it  should  be  answered  that  I 
undertook  the  job,  and  it  comes  out  to-day  in  a  "  Letter  to 
Lockhart,  in  reply,"  etc.  I  don't  believe  anybody  read  the 
last  I  wrote,  but  as  I  have  published  this  $t  Ridgway's,  per 
haps  it  may  have  a  more  extensive  sale.  The  events  have 
been  the  final  passing  of  the  Bill,  after  three  nights'  debate, 
by  a  majority  of  116,  ended  by  a  very  fine  speech  from  Peel, 
who  has  eminently  distinguished  himself  through  this  fight. 
Stanley  closed  the  debate  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning,  with 
what  they  say  was  a  good  and  dexterous  speech,  but  which 
contained  a  very  unnecessary  dissertation  about  the  Peers. 
This,  together  with  some  words  from  Richmond,  and  the 
cheerfulness  of  Holland,  makes  my  mind  misgive  me  that  we 
shall  still  have  them  created  for  the  Committee.  The  conduct 
of  the  ultra-Tories  has  been  so  bad  and  so  silly,  that  I  can- 
not wish  to  bring  them  in,  though  I  have  a  great  desire  to  turn 
the  others  out.  As  to  a  moderate  party,  it  is  a  mere  dream, 
for  where  is  the  moderation  ?  This  day  Lord  John  Russell 
brings  the  Bill  up  to  the  House  of  Lords,  and  much  indeed 
depends  upon  what  passes  there.  Harrowby  and  Wharncliffe 
will  make  their  speeches,  and  we  shall,  I  conclude,  have  the 
Duke  and  Lord  Grey.  I  expect,  and  I  beg  his  pardon  if  I  am 
wrong,  that  the  Duke  will  make  as  mischievous  a  speech  as 
he  can,  and  try  to  provoke  declarations  and  pledges  against 
the  Bill.  The  Ministers  are  exceedingly  anxious  that  Har- 
rowby should  confine  himself  to  generalities,  which  I  hope 
too,  for  I  am  certain  no  good  can,  and  much  harm  may,  be 
done  by  going  into  details.  Grey,  Holland,  and  Richmond,  all 
three  spoke  to  me  about  it  last  night,  and  I  am  going  to  see 
what  can  be  done  with  them.  1  should  not  fear  Harrowby 


1832.]        ANOTHER   BREEZE   IN   THE   HOUSE   OF   LORDS.  73 

but  that  he  is  petulant  and  sour;  Wharncliffe  is  vain,  and 
has  been  excited  in  all  this  business,  though  with  very  good 
and  very  disinterested  motives,  but  he  cannot  bear  patiently 
the  abuse  and.  the  ridicule  with  which  both-the  extreme  ends 
endeavor  to  cover  him,  and  he  is  uneasy  under  it,  and  what 
I  dread  is  that  in  making  attempts  to  set  himself  right,  and  to 
clear  his  character  with  a  party  who  will  never  forgive  him  for 
what  he  has  done,  and  to  whom  whatever  he  says  will  be  words 
cast  to  the  winds,  he  will  flounder,  and  say  something  which 
will  elicit  from  Lord  Grey  some  declaration  that  may  make 
matters  worse  than  ever.  What  I  hope  and  trust  is  that  the 
Government  and  our  people  will  confine  themselves  to  civil 
generalities,  and  pledge  themselves  depart  et  tfautre  to  noth- 
ing, and  that  they  will  not  be  provoked  by  taunts  from  any 
quarter  to  depart  from  that  prudent  course. 

There  was  another  breeze  in  the  House  of  Lords  about 
Irish  Education,  the  whole  bench  of  bishops  in  a  flame,  and 
except  Maltby,  who  spoke  for,  all  declared  against  the  plan — 
Phillpotts  in  a  furious  speech.  What  celestial  influences  have 
been  at  work  I  know  not,  but  certain  it  is  that  the  world 
seems  going  mad,  individually  and  collectively.  The  town  has 
been  more  occupied  this  week  with  Dudley's  extravagancies 
than  the  affairs  of  Europe.  He,  in  fact,  is  mad,  but  is  to  be 
cupped  and  starved  and  disciplined  sound  again-.  It  has  been 
fine  talk  for  the  town.  The  public  curiosity  and  love  of  news 
is  as  voracious  and  universal  as  the  appetite  of  a  shark,  and, 
like  it,  loves  best  what  is  grossest  and  most  disgusting;  any 
thing  relating  to  personal  distress,  to  crime,  to  passion,  is 
greedily  devoured  by  this  monster,  as  Cowley  calls  it. 

I  see 

The  monster  London  laugh  at  me ; 
I  would  at  thee,  too,  foolish  City, 
But  thy  estate  I  pity. 

Should  all  the  wicked  men  from  out  thee  go, 
And  all  the  fools  that  crowd  thee  so, 
Thou,  who  dost  thy  thousands  boast, 
Wouldst  be  a  wilderness  almost. —  Ode  to  Soli'.ude. 

But  of  all  the  examples  of  cant,  hypocrisy,  party  violence,  I 
have  never  seen  any  to  be  compared  to  the  Irish  Education 
business;  and  there  was  Rosslyn,  an  old  Whig,  voting  against; 
Carnarvon  staid  away,  every  Tory  without  exception  going 
against  the  measure.  As  to  madness,  Dudley  has  gone  mad 
in  his  own  house,  Perceval  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
26 


74  REIGN    OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVII 

John  Montague  in  the  •  Park,  the  two  latter  preaching,  both 
Irvingites  and  believers  in  "  the  tongues."  Dudley's  madness 
took  an  odd  turn;  he  would  make  up  all  his  quarrels  with 
Lady  Holland,  to  whom  he  has  not  spoken  for  sixteen  years, 
and  he  called  on  her,  and  there  were  tears  and  embraces,  and 
God  knows  what.  Sydney  Smith  told  her  that  she  was  bound 
in  honor  to  set  the  quarrel  up  again  when  he  comes  to  his 
senses,  and  put  things  into  the  status  quo  ante  pacem.  It 
would  be  hard  upon  him  to  find,  on  getting  out  of  a  strait- 
waistcoat,  that  he  had  been  robbed  of  all  his  hatreds  and  hos- 
tilities, and  seduced  into  the  house  of  his  oldest  foe. 

March  21th. — I  did  the  Duke  of  Wellington  an  injustice. 
He  spoke,  but  without  any  violence,  in  a  fair  and  gentleman- 
like manner,  a  speech  creditable  to  himself,  useful,  and  becom- 
ing. If  there  was  any  disposition  on  the  part  of  his  f  ollowers'to 
light  a  flame,  he  at  once  repressed  it.  The  whole  thing  went 
off  well;  House  very  full;  Harrowby  began,  and  made  an  ex- 
cellent speech,  with  the  exception  of  one  mistake.  He  dwelt 
too  much  on  the  difference  between  this  Bill  and  the  last, 
as  if  the  difference  of  his  own  conduct  resulted  from  that 
cause,  and  this  I  could  see  they  were  taking  up  in  their 
minds,  and  though  he  corrected  the  impression  afterward,  it 
will  be  constantly  brought  up  against  him,  I  have  no  doubt. 
After  him  Carnarvon,  who  alone  was  violent,  but  short;  then 
Wharncliffe  (I  am  not  sure  which  was  first  of  these  two), 
very  short  and  rather  embarrassed,  expressing  his  concur- 
rence with  Lord  Harrowby;  then  the  Bishop  of  London,  short 
also,  but  strong  in  his  language,  much  more  than  Lord  Har- 
rowby; then  Lord  Grey,  temperate  and  very  general,  harping 
a  little  too  much  on  that  confounded  word  efficiency,  denying 
that  what  he  said  last  year  bore  the  interpretation  that  had 
been  put  upon  it,  and  announcing  that  he  would  give  his 
best  consideration  to  any  amendments,  a  very  good  speech  ; 
then  the  Duke,  in  a  very  handsome  speech,  acknowledging 
that  he  was  not  against  all  Reform,  though  he  was  against 
this  Bill,  because  he  did  not  think  if  it  passed  it  would  be 
possible  to  carry  on  the  government  of  the  country,  but 
promising  that  if  the  Bill  went  into  Committee  he  would  give 
his  constant  attendance,  and  do  all  in  his  power  to  make  it 
as  safe  a  measure  as  possible.  So  finished  this  important 
evening,  much  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  moderate  and  to 
the  disgust  of  the  violent  party.  I  asked  Lord  Holland  if 
he  was  satisfied  (in  the  House  after  the  debate),  and  he  said, 


1832.J  SUCCESS  OF   THE   WAVERERS.  75 

"Yes,  yes,  very  well,  but  the  Bishop's  the  man;"  and  in 
the  evening  at  Lord  Grey's  I  found  they  were  all  full  of  the 
Bishop.  Lord  Grey  said  to  me,  "  Well,  you  will  allow  that  I 
behaved  very  well  ? "  I  said,  "  Yes,  very,  but  the  whole 
thing  was  satisfactory,  I  think."  "  Yes,"  he  said,  "  on  the 
whole,  but  they  were  a  little  too  strong,  too  violent  against 
the  Bill,"  because  Harrowby  had  declared  that  he  felt  the 
same  objection  to  the  measure  he  had  felt  before.  Sefton  was 
outrageous,  talked  a  vast  deal  of  amusing  nonsense,  "  that  he 
had  never  heard  such  twaddle,"  "  but  that  the  success  was 
complete,  and  he  looked  on  Harrowby  and  Wharncliffe  as  the 
two  most  enviable  men  in  the  kingdom."  I  have  no  doubt 
that  all  the  ultras  will  be  deeply  mortified  at  the  moderation 
of  Lord  Grey  and  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  and  at  the  suc- 
cess so  far  of  "  the  Waverers." 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

Debate  in  the  House  of  Lords— Lord  Harrowby's  Position — Hopes  of  a  Compromise— Lord 
Melbourne's  View — Disturbances  caused  by  the  Cholera — The  Disfranchisement  Clause 
— The  Number  "56" — Peers  contemplated — The  King's  Hesitation — "The  Hunch- 
back"— Critical  Position  of  the  Waverers — Bill  carried  by  Nine  in  the  Lords — The  Cholera 
in  Paris — Moderate  Speech  of  Lord  Grey — End  of  the  Secession— Conciliatory  Over- 
tures— Negotiations  carried  on  at  Newmarket — Hostile  Division  in  the  Lords — Lord 
WharnclinVs  Account  of  his  Failure— Lord  Grey  resigns — The  Duke  of  Wellington 


attempts  to  form  a  Ministry— Peel  declines — Hostility  of  the  Court  to  the  Whigs — A 
T  Scene — The  Duke  fails— History  of  the  Crisis — Lord  Grey  returns  to  Office 
ag's  Excitement — The  King  writes  to  the  Opposition  Peers — Defeat  and  Dis- 


Change  of  Scene— The  Duke  fails— History  of  the  Cri 
— The  King's  Excitement — The  King  writes  to  the  Op 

grace  of  the  Tories—Conversation  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington— Louis  XVIII. — Madame 
du  Cayla — Weakness  of  the  King — Mortality  among  Great  Men — Petition  against  Lord 
W.  Bentinck's  Prohibition  of  Suttee  heard  by  the  Privy  Council— O'Connell  and  the 
Cholera— Irish  Tithe  Bill — Irish  Difficulties— Mr.  Stanley— Concluding  Debates  of  the 
Parliament — Quarrel  between  Brougham  and  Sngden — Holland  and  Belgium- 
Brougham's  Revenge  and  Apology — Dinner  at  Holland  House — Anecdotes  of  Johnson 
— Death  of  Mr.  Greville's  Father — Madame  de  Flahaut's  Account  of  the  Princess 
Charlotte — Prince  Augustus  of  Prussia — Captain  Hess — Hostilities  in  Holland  and  in 
Portugal— The  Duchesse  de  Bern— Conversation  with  Lord  Melbourne  on  the  State  of 
the  Government 

March  28th. — There  appear  to  have  been  as  many  differ- 
ences of  opinion  as  of  people  on  the  discussion  in  the  House 
of  Lords  when  the  Bill  was  brought  up,  and  it  seems  paradoxi- 
cal, but  is  true,  that  though  it  was  on  the  whole  satisfactory, 
nobody  was  satisfied.  Lord  Grey  complained  to  me  that  Lord 
Harrowby  was  too  stiff  ;  Lord  Harrowby  complained  that 
Lord  Grey  was  always  beating  about  the  bush  of  compromise, 
but  never  would  commit  himself  fairly  to  concession.  Mel- 


76  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

bourne  complained  last  night  that  what  was  done  wa'S  done  in 
such  an  ungracious  manner,  so  niggardly,  that  he  hated  the 
man  (Harrowby)  who  did  it.  The  ultra-Tories  are  outrageous 
"  that  he  gave  up  every  thing  without  reason  or  cause  ; "  the 
ultra-Whigs  equally  furious  "  that  he  had  shown  how  little 
way  he  was  disposed  to  go  in  Committee  ;  his  object  was  to 
turn  out  the  Government  ; "  and  what  is  comical,  neither 
party  will  believe  that  Harrowby  really  is  so  obnoxious  to  the 
other  as  he  is  said  to  be.  Each  is  convinced  that  he  is  acting 
in  the  interests  of  the  other.  What  a  position,  what  injus- 
tice, blindness,  folly,  obstinacy,  brought  together  and  exhib- 
ited !  If  ever  there  was  a  man  whose  conduct  was  exempt 
from  the  ordinary  motives  of  ambition,  and  who  made  per- 
sonal sacrifices  in  what  he  is  doing,  it  is  Lord  Harrowby,  and 
yet  there  is  no  reproach  that  is  not  cast  upon  him,  no  term  of 
abuse  that  is  not  applied  to  him,  no  motive  that  is  not  ascribed 
to  him.  No  wonder  a  man  who  has  seen  much  of  them  is  sick 
of  politics  and  public  life.  Nothing  now  is  thought  of  but 
the  lists,  and  of  course  everybody  has  got  one.  The  Tories 
still  pretend  to  a  majority  of  seven  ;  the  Government  and 
Harrowby  think  they  have  one  of  from  ten  to  twenty,  and  I 
suspect  fifteen  will  be  found  about  the  mark.  The  unfortu- 
nate thing  is  that  neither  of  our  cocks  is  good  for  fighting, 
not  from  want  of  courage,  but  Harrowby  is  peevish,  ungra- 
cious, and  unpopular,  and  Wharnecliffe  carries  no  great  weight. 
To  be  sure  neither  of  them  pretends  to  make  a  party,  but 
then  their  opponents  insist  upon  it  that  they  do,  and  men 
shrink  from  enlisting  (or  being  supposed  to  enlist)  under 
Wharncliffe's  banner.  However,  notwithstanding  the  vio- 
lence of  the  noisy  fools  of  the  party,  and  of  the  women,  there 
is  a  more  rational  disposition  on  the  part  of  practical  men,  for 
Wharncliffe  spoke  to  Ellenborough  yesterday,  and  told  him 
that  though  he  knew  he  and  Harrowby  were  regarded  as 
traitors  by  all  of  them,  he  did  hope  that  when  the  Bill  came 
into  Committee  they  would  agree  to  consult  together,  and 
try  and  come  to  some  understanding  as  to  the  best  mode  of 
dealing  with  the  question,  that  it  was  absurd  to  be  standing 
aloof  at  such  a  moment  ;  to  which  Ellenborough  replied  that 
he  perfectly  agreed  with  him,  was  anxious  to  do  so,  and 
intended  to  advise  his  friends  to  take  that  course. 

April  1st. — Wharncliffe  got  Lord  Grey  to  put  off  the 
second  reading  for  a  few  days  on  account  of  the  Quarter 
Sessions,  which  drew  down  a  precious  attack  from  London 


1832.]  STRENGTH   OF   THE   GOVERNMENT.  77 

deny,  and  was,  in  fact,  very  foolish  and  unnecessary,  as  it 
looks  like  a  concert  between  them,  of  which  it  is  very  desir- 
able to  avoid  any  appearance,  as  in  fact  none  exists.  The 
violence  of  the  Tories  continues  unabated,  and  there  is  no 
effort  they  do  not  make  to  secure  a  majority,  and  they  expect 
either  to  succeed  or  to  bring  it  to  a  near  thing.  In  the  mean 
time  the  tone  of  the  other  party  is  changed.  Dover,  who 
makes  lists,  manages  proxies,  and  does  all  the  little  jobbing, 
whipping-in,  busy  work  of  the  party,  makes  out  a  clear  major- 
ity, and  told  me  he  now  thought  the  Bill  would  get  through 
without  Peers.  The  Government,  however,  are  all  agreed  to 
make  the  Peers  if  it  turns  out  to  be  necessary,  and  especially 
if  the  Bill  should  be  thrown  out,  it  seems  clear  that  they 
would  by  no  means  go  out,  but  make  the  Peers  and  bring  it 
in  again  ;  so  I  gather  from  Richmond,  and  he,  who  was  the 
most  violently  opoosed  of  the  whole  Cabinet  to  Peer-making, 
is  now  ready  to  make  any  number  if  necessary.  There  is, 
however,  I  hope,  a  disposition  to  concession,  which,  if  mat- 
ters are  tolerably  well  managed,  may  lead  to  an  arrangement. 
Still  Wharncliffe,  who  must  have  a  great  deal  to  do  in  Com- 
mittee, is  neither  prudent  nor  popular.  The  Tories  are  obsti- 
nate, sulky,  and  indisposed  to  agree  to  any  thing  reasonable. 
It  is  the  unity  of  object  and  the  compactness  of  the  party 
which  give  the  Government  strength.  Charles  "Wood  told 
me  the  other  day  that  they  were  well  disposed  to  a  com- 
promise on  two  special  points,  one  the  exclusion  of  town 
voters  from  the  right  of  voting  for  counties,  the  other  the 
metropolitan  members.  On  the  first  he  proposed  that  no 
man  voting  for  a  town  in  right  of  a  £10  house  should  have 
a  vote  for  the  county  in  right  of  any  freehold  in  that  town. 
That  would  be  half-way  between  Wharncliffe's  plan  and  the 
present.  The  second,  that  Marylebone  should  return  two 
members,  and  Middlesex  two  more — very  like  Grey's  propo- 
sition which  Harrowby  rejected — but  I  suggested  keeping 
the  whole  and  varying  the  qualification,  to  which  he  thought 
no  objection  would  lie. 

At  the  Duchesse  de  Dino's  ball  the  night  before  last  I  had 
a  very  anxious  conversation  with  Melbourne  about  it  all.  He 
said  that  "  he  really  believed  there  was  no  strong  feeling  in 
the  country  for  the  measure."  We  talked  of  the  violence  of 
the  Tories,  and  their  notion  that  they  could  get  rid  of  the 
whole  thing.  I  said  the  notion  was  absurd  now,  but  that  I 
fully  agreed  with  him  about  the  general  feeling.  "Why, 


78  REIGN  OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

then,"  said  he,  "  might  it  not  be  thrown  out '?  " — a  consum- 
mation I  really  believe  he  would  rejoice  at,  if  it  could  be  done. 
I  said  because  there  was  a  great  party  which  would  not  let  it, 
which  would  agitate  again,  and  that  the  country  wished  ar- 
dently to  have  it  settled;  that  if  it  could  be  disposed  of  for 
good  and  all,  it  would  be  a  good  thing  indeed,  but  that  this 
was  now  become  impossible.  I  asked  him  if  his  colleagues 
were  impressed  as  he  was  with  this  truth,  and  he  said,  "  No." 
I  told  him  he  ought  to  do  every  thing  possible  to  enforce  it, 
and  to  make  them  moderate,  and  induce  them  to  concede,  to 
which  he  replied:  "  What  difficulty  can  they  have  in  swallow- 
ing the  rest  after  they  have  given  up  the  rotten  boroughs  ? 
That  is,  in  fact,  the  essential  part  of  the  Bill,  and  the  truth  is 
I  do  not  see  how  the  Government  is  to  be  carried  on  icithout 
them.  Some  means  may  be  found;  a  remedy  may  possibly 
present  itself,  and  it  may  work  in  practice  better  than  we  now 
know  of,  but  I  am  not  aware  of  any,  and  I  do  not  see  how  any 
Government  can  be  carried  on  when  these  are  swept  away." 
This  was,  if  not  his  exact  words,  the  exact  sense,  and  a  pretty 
avowal  for  a  man  to  make  at  the  eleventh  hour  who  has  been 
a  party  concerned  in  this  Bill  during  the  other  ten.  I  told 
him  I  agreed  in  every  respect,  but  that  it  was  too  late  to  dis- 
cuss this  now,  and  that  the  rotten  boroughs  were  past  saving, 
that  as  to  the  minor  points,  the  Waverers  thought  them  of 
importance,  looked  upon  them  as  securities,  compensations, 
and  moreover  as  what  would  save  their  own  honor,  and  that 
the  less  their  real  importance  was  the  more  easily  might  they 
be  conceded.  We  had  a  great  deal  more  talk,  but  then  it  is 
all  talk,  and  d  quoi  ban  with  a  man  who  holds  these  opinions 
and  acts  as  he  does  ?  Let  it  end  as  it  may,  the  history  of  the 
Bill,  and  the  means  by  which  it  has  been  conceived,  brought 
forward,  supported,  and  opposed,  will  be  most  curious  and  in- 
structive. The  division  in  the  Lords  must  be  very  close  in- 
deed. 

Orloff,  who  was  looked  for  like  the  Messiah,  at  last  made 
his  appearance  a  few  days  ago,  a  great  burly  Russian,  but  no 
ratification  yet.1 

I  have  refrained  for  a  long  time  from  writing  down  any 
thing  about  the  cholera,  because  the  subject  is  intolerably 
disgusting  to  me,  and  I  have  been  bored  past  endurance  by 
the  perpetual  questions  of  every  fool  about  it.  It  is  not, 
however,  devoid  of  interest.  In  the  first  place,  what  ha? 
1  [Of  the  Belgian  Treaty.] 


1332.]  THE   CHOLERA.  79 

happened  here  proves  that  "  the  people  "  of  this  enlightened, 
reading,  thinking,  reforming  nation  are  not  a  whit  less  bar- 
barous than  the  serfs  in  Russia,  for  precisely  the  same  preju- 
dices have  been  shown  here  that  were  found  at  St.  Peters- 
burg and  at  Berlin.  The  disease  has  undoubtedly  appeared 
(hitherto)  in  this  country  in  a  milder  shape  than  elsewhere, 
but  the  alarm  at  its  name  was  so  great  that  the  Government 
could  do  no  otherwise  than  take  such  precautions  and  means 
of  safety  as  appeared  best  to  avert  the  danger  or  mitigate 
its  consequences.  Here  it  came,  and  the  immediate  effect 
was  a  great  inconvenience  to  trade  and  commerce,  owing  to 
restrictions,  both  those  imposed  by  foreigners  generally  on 
this  country  and  those  we  imposed  ourselves  between  the 
healthy  and  unhealthy  places.  This  begot  complaints  and 
disputes,  and  professional  prejudices  and  jealousies  urged  a 
host  of  combatants  into  the  field  to  fight  about  the  existence 
or  non-existence  of  cholera,  its  contagiousness,  and  any  col- 
lateral question.  The  disposition  of  the  public  was  (and  is) 
to  believe  that  the  whole  thing  was  a  humbug,  and  accord- 
ingly plenty  of  people  were  found  to  write  in  that  sense,  and 
the  press  lent  itself  to  propagate  the  same  idea.  The  disease, 
however,  kept  creeping  on,  the  Boards  of  Health  which  were 
everywhere  established  immediately  became  odioits,  and  the 
vestries  and  parishes  stoutly  resisted  all  pecuniary  demands 
for  the  purpose  of  carrying  into  effect  the  recommendations 
of  the  Central  Board  or  the  orders  of  the  Privy  Council.  In 
this  town  the  mob  has  taken  the  part  of  the  anti-cholerites, 
and  the  most  disgraceful  scenes  have  occurred.  The  other 
day  a  Mr.  Pope,  head  of  the  hospital  in  Marylebone  (Cholera 
Hospital)  came  to  the  Council  Office  to  complain  that  a 
patient  who  was  being  removed  with  his  own  consent  had 
been  taken  out  of  his  chair  by  the  mob  and  carried  back,  the 
chair  broken,  and  the  bearers  and  surgeon  hardly  escaping 
with  their  lives.  Furious  contests  have  taken  place  about  the 
burials,  it  having  been  recommended  that  bodies  should  be 
burned  directly  after  death,  and  the  most  violent  prejudice 
opposing  itself  to  this  recommendation ;  in  short,  there  is  no 
end  to  the  scenes  of  uproar,  violence,  and  brutal  ignorance 
that  have  gone  on,  and  this  on  the  part  of  the  lo\ver  orders, 
for  whose  especial  benefit  all  the  precautions  are  taken,  and 
for  whose  relief  large  sums  have  been  raised  and  all  the 
resources  of  charity  called  into  activity  in  every  part  of  the 
town.  The  awful  thing  is  the  vast  extent  of  misery  and 


80  KEIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

distress  which  prevails,  and  the  evidence  of  the  rotten  founda- 
tion on  which  the  whole  fabric  of  this  gorgeous  society  rests, 
for  I  call  that  rotten  which  exhibits  thousands  and  thousands 
of  human  beings  reduced  to  the  lowest  stage  of  moral  and 
physical  degradation,  with  no  more  of  the  necessaries  of  life 
than  serve  to  keep  body  and  soul  together,  whole  classes  of 
artisans  without  the  means  of  subsistence.  However  compli- 
cated and  remote  the  causes  of  this  state  of  things,  the  mani- 
festations present  themselves  in  a  frightful  presence  and 
reality,  and  those  whose  ingenuity,  and  experience,  and  philo- 
sophical views  may  enable  them  accurately  to  point  out  the 
causes  and  the  gradual  increase  of  this  distress  are  totally 
unable  to  suggest  a  remedy  or  to  foresee  an  end  to  it.  Can 
such  a  state  of  things  permanently  go  on  ?  can  anv  reform 
ameliorate  it?  Is  it  possible  for  any  country  to  be  considered 
in  a  healthy  condition  when  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  gen- 
eral diffusion  of  the  comforts  of  life  (varj'ing  of  course  with 
every  variety  of  circumstance  which  can  affect  the  prosperity 
of  individuals  or  of  classes),  but  when  the  extremes  prevail 
of  the  most  unbounded  luxury  and  enjoyment  and  the  most 
dreadful  privation  and  suffering  ?  To  imagine  a  state  of  so- 
ciety in  which  everybody  should  be  well  off,  or  even  tolerably 
well  off,  would  be  a  mere  vision,  as  long  as  there  is  a  prepon- 
derance of  vice  and  folly  in  the  world.  There  will  always  be 
effects  commensurate  with  their  causes,  but  it  has  not  always 
been,  and  it  certainly  need  not  be,  that  the  majority  of  the 
population  should  be  in  great  difficulty,  struggling  to  keep 
themselves  afloat,  and,  what  is  worse,  in  uncertainty  and  in 
doubt  whether  they  can  earn  subsistence  for  themselves  and 
their  families.  Such  is  the  case  at  present,  and  I  believe  a 
general  uncertainty  pervades  every  class  of  society,  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest ;  nobody  looks  upon  any  institution  as 
secure,  or  any  interest  as  safe,  and  it  is  only  because  those 
universal  feelings  of  alarm  which  are  equally  diffused  through- 
out the  mass  but  slightly  affect  each  individual  atom  of  it 
that  we  see  the  world  go  on  as  usual,  eating,  drinking, 
laughing,  and  dancing,  and  not  insensible  to  the  danger, 
though  apparently  indifferent  about  it. 

April  4th. — Charles  Wood '  came  to  me  yesterday,  and 
brought  a  paper  showing  the  various  effects  of  a  different 
qualification  from  £10  to  £40  for  the  metropolitan  districts, 

i  [Mr.  Charles  Wood,  afterward  Viscount  Halifax,  but  at  this  time  private 
Secretary  to  Earl  Grey,  whose  daughter  he  married.] 


1832.]  A  DIFFICULTY  AT  SCHEDULE  A.  81 

to  talk  over  the  list,  but  principally  to  get  me  to  speak  to 
Harrowby  about  a  foreseen  difficulty.  The  first  clause  in 
the  Bill  enacts  that  fifty-six  boroughs  be  disfranchised.  This 
gave  great  offense  in  the  House  of  Commons,  was  feebly 
defended,  but  carried  by  the  majority,  which  was  always 
ready  and  required  no  reason  ;*it  was  an  egregious  piece 
of  folly  and  arrogance  there,  here  it  presents  a  real  embar- 
rassment. I  told  him  I  knew  Harrowby  had  an  invincible 
repugnance  to  it,  and  that  the  effect  would  be  very  bad  if 
they  split  upon  the  iirst  point.  He  said  he  should  not  de- 
fend it,  that  all  reason  was  against  it,  but  that  there  it  was, 
and  how  was  it  to  be  got  rid  of?  I  suggested  that  it  should  be 
passed  over,  and  that  they  should  go  at  once  to  the  boroughs 
seriatim.  He  said  if  that  clause  was  omitted  a  suspicion 
would  immediately  arise  that  there  was  an  intention  of  alter- 
ing Schedule  A,  and  nothing  would  avert  that  but  getting 
through  a  great  part  of  it  before  Easter,  and  that  this  might 
be  difficult,  as  the  longest  time  they  could  expect  to  sit  would 
be  three  days  in  Passion  Week.  He  talked  a  great  deal  about 
the  country  expecting  this,  and  that  they  would  not  be  satis- 
fied if  it  was  not  done,  and  all  the  usual  jargon  of  the  Reform- 
ers, which  it  was  not  worth  while  to  dispute,  and  it  ended  by 
my  promising  to  talk  to  Lord  Harrowby  about  it.  This  I  did 
last  night,  and  he  instantly  flew  into  a  rage.  He  said  "  he 
would  not  be  dragged  through  the  mire  by  those  scoundrels. 
It  was  an  insolence  that  was  not. to  be  borne  ;  let  them  make 
their  Peers  if  they  would,  not  Hell  itself  should  make  him 
vote  far  fifty-six  ;  he  would  vote  for  sixty-six  or  any  number 
but  that,  that  he  would  not  split  with  the  Tories  on  the  first 
vote ;  if  indeed  they  would  consent  to  fifty-six  he  would,  or 
to  any  thing  else  they  would  agree  to,  but  if  the  Government 
brought  this  forward  no  consideration  on  earth  should  prevent 
his  opposing  it."  We  then  discussed  the  whole  matter,  with 
the  proposed  amendments  which  Wood  and  I  had  talked  over 
with  reference  to  the  metropolitan  members  and  town  and 
county  voting,  and  I  am  to  go  to-day  and  propose  that  after 
the  second  reading  is  carried  they  should  adjourn  till  after 
Easter,  and  give  a  little  time  for  the  excitement  (which  there 
nr.ist  be)  to  subside,  and  to  see  how  matters  stand,  and  what 
probability  there  is  of  getting  the  thing  through  quietly. 

April  Qt/i. — I  called  on  the  Duke  of  Richmond  on  Wednes- 
dav  morning,  and  told  him  what  had  passed  between  Wood 
a:nl  mo,  and  Lord  Harrowby  and  me  afterward.  He  was 


82  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVIU 

aware  of  the  difficulty,  and  regretted  it  the  more  because  he 
might  have  to  defend  it  in  the  House  of  Lords.  He  wished 
me  very  much  to  go  to  Downing  Street  and  see  Lord  Grey 
himself  if  possible  before  the  levee,  and  he  suggested  that  the 
words  fifty-six  might  be  left  in  blank  by  Lord  Grey's  own  mo- 
tion, that  this  would  be  in  conformity  with  the  forms  of  the 
House.  I  set  off,  but  calling  at  home  on  my  way  found  Lord 
Harrowby  at  my  door.  He  came  in,  and  was  anxious  to  know 
if  I  had  said  any  thing ;  he  was  more  quiet  than  the  night  be- 
fore, but  still  resolved  not  to  agree  to  fifty-six,  though  anxious 
to  have  the  matter  compromised  in  some  way.  Lord  Harrow- 
by  wanted  to  adjourn  after  the  second  reading,  but  owned 
that  the  best  effect  would  be  to  get  through  Schedule  A  before 
Easter.  Yesterday  I  saw  Wood  ;  he  harped  upon  the  diffi- 
culty and  the  old  strain  of  the  country.  I  suggested  the  point 
of  form  which  Richmond  had  mentioned,  but  he  said  that  could 
not  be  now  in  the  Bill,  as  it  was  sent  up  from  the  Commons, 
that  if  they  were  beaten  on  fifty-six  the  country  would  consider 
it  tantamount  to  throwing  out  Schedule  A,  and  would  highly 
approve  of  a  creation  of  Peers,  and  that,  in  fact  (if  they 
wished  it),  it  would  be  the  best  opportunity  they  could  have. 
I  told  him  that  it  would  heap  ridicule  upon  all  the  antecedent 
proceedings,  and  the  pretext  must  be  manifest,  as  it  would 
appear  in  the  course  of  the  discussions  what  the  real  reason 
was.  In  the  middle  of  our  conversation  Ellice  came  in,  and 
directly  asked  if  my  friends  would  swallow  fifty-six,  to  which 
I  said,  "  No."  We  had  then  a  vehement  dispute,  but  at  last 
Wood  turned  him  out,  and  he  and  I  resumed.  We  finally 
agreed  that  I  should  ask  Lord  Harrowby  whether,  if  Lord 
Grey  of  his  own  accord  proposed  to  leave  out  the  words  fifty- 
six,  but  with  an  expression  of  his  opinion  that  this  must  be 
the  number,  he  (Lord  Harrowby)  would  meet  him  with  a  cor- 
responding declaration  that  he  objected  to  the  specification 
of  the  number  in  the  clause,  without  objecting  to  the  extent 
of  the  disfranchisement,  it  being  always  understood  that  what 
passes  between  us  is  unauthorized  talk,  and  to  commit  no- 
body— "  without  prejudice,"  as  the  lawyers  say. 

I  heard  yesterday,  however,  from  Keate,  who  is  attend- 
ing me  (and  who  is  the  King's  surgeon,  and  sees  him  when 
he  is  in  town),  that  he  saw  his  Majesty  after  the  levee  on 
Wednesday,  and  that  he  was  ill,  out  of  sorts,  and  in  con- 
siderable agitation  ;  that  he  inquired  of  him  about  his  health, 
when  the  King  said  he  had  much  to  annoy  him,  and  that 


1832.]  THE   NEW  PEERS.  83 

"  many  things  passed  there  (pointing  to  the  Cabinet,  out  of 
which  he  had  just  come)  which  were  by  no  means  agreeable, 
and  that  he  had  had  more  than  usual  to  occupy  him  that  morn- 
ing." Keate  said  he  was  very  sure  from  his  manner  that 
something  unpleasant  had  occurred.  This  was,  I  have  since 
discovered,  the  question  of  a  creation  of  Peers  again  brought 
forward,  and  to  which  the  King's  aversion  has  returned  so 
much  so  that  it  is  doubtful  if  he  will  after  all  consent  to  a 
large  one.  It  seems  that  unless  the  Peers  are  made  (in  the 
event  of  the  necessity  arising)  Brougham  and  Althorp  will 
resign ;  at  least  so  they  threaten.  I  have  seen  enough  of 
threats,  and  doubts,  and  scruples,  to  be  satisfied  that  there  is 
no  certainty  that  any  of  them  will  produce  the  anticipated 
effects,  but  I  am  resolved  I  will  try,  out  of  these  various  ele- 
ments, if  I  cannot  work  out  something  which  may  be  service- 
able to  the  cause  itself,  though  the  materials  I  have  to  work 
with  are  scanty.  The  Ministers  were  all  day  yesterday  set- 
tling who  the  new  Peers  shall  be,  so  seriously  are  they  pre- 
paring for  the  coup.  They  had  already  fixed  upon  Lords 
Molyueux,  Blandford,  Kennedy,  Ebrington,  Cavendish,  Bra- 
bazon,  and  Charles  Fox,  Littleton,  Portman,  Frederick  Law- 
ley,  Western,  and  many  others,  and  this  would  be  what  Lord 
Holland  calls  assimilating  the  House  of  Lords  to  the  spirit  of 
the  other  House,  and  making  it  harmonize  with  the  prevailing 
sense  of  the  people. 

April  8th. — Lord  Harrowby  was  out  of  town  when  I  called 
there  on  Friday,  so  I  wrote  to  him  the  substance  of  my  con- 
versation with  Wood.  Yesterday  he  returned.  In  the  even- 
ing I  met  Wood  at  dinner  at  Lord  Holland's,  when  he  told  me 
that  he  found  on  the  part  of  his  friends  more  reluctance  than, 
he  had  expected  to  give  up  the  fifty-six,  that  he  had  done  all 
he  could  to  persuade  them,  but  they  made  great  objections. 
Moreover,  he  had  had  a  conversation  with  Sandon  which  he 
did  not  quite  like,  as  he  talked  so  much  of  holding  the  party 
together.  All  this  was  to  make  me  think  they  are  stouter 
than  they  really  are,  for  I  am  better  informed  than  he  thinks 
for. 

Yesterday  morning  I  got  more  correct  information  about 
what  had  passed  with  the  King.  Lord  Grey  went  to  him  with 
a  minute  of  Cabinet  requiring  that  he  should  make  Peers  in 
case  the  second  reading  was  thrown  out.1  To  this  he  de- 

1  [This  Cabinet  minute  of  the  3d  April,  1832,  and  the  King's  remarks  upon 
it,  have  been  printed  in  the  "  Correspondence  of  William  IV.  and  Earl  Grey," 
vol.  iii.,  p.  307.  ] 


84  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CuiP.  XVIII. 

murred,  raised  difficulties  and  doubts,  which  naturally  enough 
alarm  the  Government  very  much.  However,  when  he  got 
back  to  Windsor  he  wrote  two  letters,  explaining  his  senti- 
ments, from  which  it  appears  that  he  has  great  reluctance, 
that  he  will  do  it,  but  will  not  give  any  pledge  beforehand, 
that  he  objects  to  increasing  the  Peerage,  and  wants  to  call 
xip  eldest  sons  and  make  Irish  and  Scotch  Peers,  that  he  did 
not  say  positively  he  would  make  the  Peers,  but  that  he  would 
be  in  the  way,  and  come  up  when  it  was  necessary.  They 
think  that  he  has  some  idea  that  his  pledging  himself  before- 
hand (though  in  fact  he  did  so  two  months  ago)  might  be 
drawn  into  an  improper  precedent.  However  this  may  be, 
his  reluctance  is  so  strong  that  a  great  deal  may  be  made  of 
it,  as  it  is  probable  (if  he  continues  in  the  same  mind,  and  is 
not  turned  by  some  violence  of  the  Opposition)  that  he  will 
resist  still  more  making  Peers  when  the  Bill  is  in  Committee 
to  carry  the  details,  some  of  which  he  himself  wishes  to  see 
altered,  but  the  difficulty  is  very  great.  It  is  impossible  to 
communicate  with  the  Tory  leaders ;  they  will  not  believe 
what  you  tell  them,  and  if  they  learned  the  King's  scruples 
they  would  immediately  imagine  that  they  might  presume 
upon  them  to  any  extent,  and  stand  out  more  obstinately  than 
ever.  I  went  to  Harrowby  last  night,  and  imparted  to  him 
the  state  of  things,  which  I  shall  do  to  nobody  else.  To 
Wharncliffe  I  dare  not.  He  is  not  indisposed  to  Wood's  com- 
promise, and  I  trust  this  will  be  settled,  but  he  still  leans  to 
putting  off  the  second  reading  till  after  Easter,  and  if  the 
Tories  also  resolve  upon  that  (which  they  are  mightily  dis- 
posed to  do)  he  will  not  separate  from  them  on  that  point, 
and  they  are  sure  to  carry  it.  Unless  this  was  accompanied 
with  some  declaration  from  them  that  they  would  be  disposed 
to  concede  the  great  principles  of  the  Bill,  I  think  the  Govern- 
ment would  consider  it  such  an  indication  of  hostility  as  to 
call  for  an  immediate  creation  of  Peers,  and  I  doubt  whether 
the  King  could  or  would  resist.  There  are  many  reasons  why 
it  would  be  desirable  to  make  the  second  reading  a  resting- 
place,  and  adjourn  then  till  after  Easter,  provided  all  parties 
consented,  but  it  would  be  very  unwise  to  make  it  the  subject 
of  a  contest,  and  nobody  would  ever  believe  that  the  real  rea- 
son was  not  to  get  rid  of  Schedule  A  by  hook  or  by  crock,  or 
of  a  good  deal  of  it.  Harrowby  will,  I  am  sure,  not  divide 
against  them  on  this,  and  they  will  not  give  it  up ;  that  there 
are  means  of  resistance,  if  they  were  judiciously  applied,  I  am 


1832.]  KNOWLES'S  "HUNCHBACK."  85 

sure,  and  if  there  were  temper,  discretion,  and  cordiality,  the 
Bill  might  be  licked  into  a  very  decent  shape. 

I  went  to  see  Sheridan  Knowles's  new  play  the  other 
night,  "The  Hunchback."  Very  good,  and  a  great  success. 
Miss  Fanny  Kemble  acted  really  well — for  the  first  time,  in 
my  opinion,  great  acting.  I  have  not  seen  any  thing  since 
Mrs.  Siddons  (and  perhaps  Miss  O'Neill)  so  good. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  made  a  very  good  speech  on 
Irish  affairs  on  Friday,  one  of  his  best,  and  he  speaks  admira- 
bly to  points  sometimes  and  on  subjects  he  understands.  I 
wish  he  had  let  alone  that  Irish  Education — disgraceful  hum- 
bug and  cant.  I  don't  know  that  there  is  any  thing  else  par- 
ticularly new.  Orloff  is  made  a  great  rout  with,  but  he  don't 
ratify.  The  real  truth  is  that  the  King  of  Holland  holds  out, 
and  the  other  Powers  delay  till  they  see  the  result  of  our 
Reform  Bill,  thinking  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington  may  return 
to  power,  and  then  they  may  make  better  terms  for  Holland 
and  dictate  to  Belgium  and  to  France.  If  the  Reform  Bill  is 
carried,  and  Government  stays  in,  they  will  ratify,  and  not  till 
then.  The  cholera  is  disappearing  here  and  in  the  country. 

April  9th. — Saw  Lord  Harrowby  yesterday  morning.  He 
can't  make  up  his  mind  what  is  best  to  be  done,  whether  to 
go  into  Committee  or  not.  He  rather  wishes  to  get  through 
Schedule  A,  but  he  won't  vote  against  the  Tories  if  they 
divide  on  adjourning.  Then  went  to  Wood  and  told  him 
there  would  be  no  difficulty  about  fifty-six.  Lord  Grey  came 
in,  and  talked  the  whole  thing  over.  He  said  he  was  ill — 
knocked  up — that  in  his  speech  to-day  he  should  be  as  moder- 
ate and  tame  as  anybody  could  wish.  From  what  Wood 
said,  and  he  himself  afterward,  I  should  think  they  wish  to 
adjourn  after  the  second  reading,  but  to  make  a  merit  of  it  if 
they  do.  Duncannon,  whom  I  saw  afterward,  seemed  to  be 
of  the  same  opinion,  that  it  would  be  best  not  to  sit  in  Passion 
Week.  At  night  Wharncliffe-came  back  from  Yorkshire.  He 
is  all  for  getting  into  Schedule  A,  and  making  no  difficulties 
about  fifty-six  or  any  thing  else,  and  Harrowby,  now  that  he 
fancies  the  Government  want  to  adjourn,  rather  wants  not, 
suspecting  some  trick.  Upon  going  all  over  the  list,  we  make 
out  the  worst  to  give  a  majority  of  six,  and  the  best  of  eigh- 
teen, but  the  Tories  still  count  upon  getting  back  some  of  our 
people.  We  had  a  grand  hunt  after  Lord  Gambier's  proxy ; 
lie  sent  it  to  Lord  de  Saumarez,  who  is  laid  up  with  the  gout 
in  Guernsey,  and  the  difficulty  was  to  get  at  Ixjrd  .Gambier 


86  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

and  procure  another.  At  last  I  made  Harrowby,  who  does 
not  know  him,  write  to  him,  and  Wood  sent  a  messenger  after 
him,  so  we  hope  it  will  arrive  in  time. 

April  11th. — The  day  before  yesterday  Lord  Grey  intro- 
duced the  Reform  Bill  in  a  speech  of  extreme  moderation  ;  as 
he  promised,  it  was  very  "  tame."  The  night's  debate  was 
dull ;  yesterday  was  better.  Lord  Mansfield  made  a  fine 
speech  against  the  Bill ;  Harrowby  spoke  well ;  Wharncliffe  ill. 
Nothing  can  equal  the  hot  water  we  have  been  in — defections 
threatened  on  every  side,  expectations  thwarted  and  doubts 
arising,  betting  nearly  even.  Ev\m  De  Ros  came  to  me  in 
the  morning  and  told  me  he  doubted  how  he  should  vote  ; 
that  neither  Harrowby  nor  Wharncliffe  had  put  the  question 
on  the  proper  ground,  and  his  reason  for  seceding  from  the 
Opposition  was  the  menaced  creation  of  Peers.  I  wrote  to 
Harrowby  and  begged  him  to  say  something  to  satisfy  tender 
consciences,  and  moved  heaven  and  earth  to  keep  De  Ros  and 
Coventry  (who  was  slippery)  right,  and  I  succeeded — at  least 
I  believe  so,  for  it  is  not  yet  over.  Nothing  can  equal  the 
anxiety  out-of-doors  and  the  intensity  of  the  interest  in  the 
town,  but  the  debate  is  far  less  animated  than  that  of  last 
year.  As  to  our  business,  it  is  "  la  mer  d  boire,"  with  nobody 
to  canvass  or  whip  in,  and  not  being  a  party.  We  shall,  how- 
ever, I  believe,  manage  it,  and  but  just. 

I  saw  Keate  this  morning,  who  had  been  with  the  King. 
His  Majesty  talked  in  high  terms  of  Ellenborough  and  of 
Mansfield.  It  is  difficult  to  count  upon  such  a  man,  but  if  the 
second  reading  is  passed  I  do  not  believe  he  will  make  Peers 
to  carry  any  points  in  Committee,  unless  it  be  the  very  vital 
ones,  but  it  is  very  questionable  if  the  Opposition  will  fight 
the  battle  then  at  all,  or,  if  they  do,  fight  in  a  way  to  secure 
a  fair,  practical  result. 

April  14tfA. — The  Reform  Bill  (second  reading)  was  car- 
ried this  morning  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  House  of  Lords  by 
a  majority  of  nine.  The  House  did  not  sit  yesterday.  The 
night  before  Phillpotts,  the  Bishop  of  Exeter,  made  a  grand 
speech  against  the  Bill,  full  of  fire  and  venom,  very  able.  It 
would  be  an  injury  to  compare  this  man  with  Laud;  he  more 
resembles  Gardiner ;  had  he  lived  in  those  days  he  would 
have  been  just  such  another,  boiling  with  ambition,  an  ardent 
temperament,  and  great  talents.  He  has  a  desperate  and 
dreadful  countenance,  and  looks  like  the  man  he  is.  The  last 
two  days  gave  plenty  of  reports  of  changes  either  way,  bu1 


1832]  LORD  GREY'S  REPLY.  87 

the  majority  has  always  looked  like  from  seven  to  ten.  The 
House  will  adjourn  on  Wednesday,  and  go  into  Committee 
after  Easter ;  and  in  the  mean  time  what  negotiations  and 
what  difficulties  to  get  over !  The  Duke  of  Wellington  and 
Lord  Harrowby  have  had  some  good-humored  talk,  and  the 
former  seems  well  disposed  to  join  in  amending  the  Bill,  but 
the  difficulty  will  be  to  bring  these  extreme  and  irritated  par- 
ties to  any  agreement  as  to  terms.  The  debate  in  the  Lords, 
though  not  so  good  as  last  year,  has  been,  as  usual,  much 
better  than  that  in  the  Commons. 

The  accounts  from  Paris  of  the  cholera  are  awful,  very 
different  from  the  disease  here.  Is  it  not  owing  to  our  supe- 
rior cleanliness,  draining,  and  precautions  ?  There  have  been 
1,300  sick  in  a  day  there,  and  for  some  days  an  average  of 
1,000 ;  here  we  have  never  averaged  above  fifty,  I  think,  and, 
except  the  squabbling  in  the  newspapers,  we  have  seen  noth- 
ing of  it  whatever ;  there  many  of  the  upper  classes  have 
died  of  it.  Casimir  P£rier  and  the  Duke  of  Orleans  went  to 
the  Hotel-Dieu,  and  the  former  was  seized  afterward,  and  has 
been  very  ill,  though  they  doubt  if  it  really  was  cholera,  as  he 
is  subject  to  attacks  with  the  same  symptoms. 

April  15th. — The  debate  in  the  House  of  Lords  was  closed 
by  a  remarkable  reply  from  Lord  Grey,  full  of  moderation, 
and  such  as  to  hold  out  the  best  hopes  of  an  adjustment  of 
the  question — not  that  it  pacified  the  ultra-Tories,  who  were 
furious.  The  speech  was  so  ill  reported  at  that  late  hour 
that  it  is  not  generally  known  what  he  did  say,  and  many  of 
those  who  heard  it  almost  doubt  their  own  accuracy,  or 
suspect  that  he  went  further  than  he  intended,  so  unlike  was 
it  to  his  former  violent  and  unyielding  language.  He  said, 
with  regard  to  a  creation  of  Peers,  that  nothing  would  justify 
him  in  recommending  the  exercise  of  that  prerogative  but  a 
collision  between  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament,  and  that  in 
such  a  case  (he  is  reported  to  have  said)  he  should  deem  it 
his  duty  first  to  recommend  a  dissolution  and  to  ascertain 
whether  the  feeling  of  the  country  was  with  the  other  House 
(these  were  not  the  words,  but  to  this  effect).  If  this  be  at 
all  correct,  it  is  clear  that  he  cannot  make  Peers  to  carry 
the  clauses,  for,  in  fact,  the  collision  between  the  two  Houses 
will  not  have  arrived  unless  the  Commons  should  reject  any 
amendments  which  may  be  made  by  the  Lords.  The  tone, 
however,  of  the  violent  supporters  of  Government  is  totally 
changed ;  at  Lord  Holland's  last  night  they  were  singing  in 


88  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

a  very  different  note,  and,  now,  if  the  councils  of  the  Lords 
are  guided  by  moderation  and  firmness,  they  may  deal  with 
the  Bill  almost  as  they  please ;  but  they  must  swallow 
Schedule  A.  The  difficulties,  however,  are  great;  the  High 
Tories  are  exasperated  and  vindictive,  and  will  fiercely  fight 
against  any  union  with  the  seceders.  The  Duke  is  moderate 
in  his  tone,  ready  to  act  cordially  with  all  parties,  but  he 
owes  the  seceders  a  grudge,  is  anxious  to  preserve  his  in- 
fluence with  the  Tories,  and  will  probably  insist  upon  mu- 
tilating the  Bill  more  than  will  be  prudent  and  feasible. 
The  Harrowby  and  Wharncliffe  party,  now  that  the  second 
reading  is  over,  ceases  to  be  a  party.  It  was  a  patched-up 
miscellaneous  concern  at  best,  of  men  who  were  half  reasoned, 
half  frightened  over,  who  could  not  bear  separating  from  the 
Duke,  long  to  return  to  him,  and,  besides,  are  ashamed  of  Wharn- 
cliffe  as  a  chief.  There  never  was  such  a  "  chef  de  circon- 
stance."  He  is  a  very  honest  man,  with  a  right  view  of 
things,  and  a  fair  and  unprejudiced  understanding,  vain  and 
imprudent,  without  authority,  commanding  no  respect,  and  in 
a  false  position  as  the  ephemeral  leader  he  is,  marching  in 
that  capacity  pari  passu  with  Harrowby,  who  is  infinitely 
more  looked  up  to,  but  whose  bilious  complexion  prevents  his 
mixing  with  society  and  engaging  and  persuading  others  to 
follow  his  opinions  ;  nor  has  he  (Lord  Harrowby)  any  plan  or 
design  beyond  the  object  of  the  moment.  He  has  no  thought 
of  mixing  again  in  public  life,  he  does  not  propose  to  commu- 
nicate with  anybody  on  any  thing  further  than  the  middle 
course  to  be  adopted  now,  and  few  people  are  disposed  to 
sever  the  ties  on  which  their  future  political  existence  depends 
for  the  sake  of  cultivating  this  short-lived  connection.  If  the 
Government,  therefore,  looks  to  the  seceders  who  have  carried 
the  question  for  them  to  carry  other  points,  they  will  find  it 
won't  do,  for  their  followers  will  melt  into  the  mass  of  the  anti- 
Reformers,  who,  though  they  will  still  frown  upon  the  chiefs, 
will  gladly  take  back  the  rank  and  file.  A  fortnight  will 
elapse,  in  the  course  of  which  opportunities  will  be  found  of 
ascertaining  the  disposition  of  the  great  party  and  the  proba- 
bility of  an  arrangement. 

The  debate  was  good  on  Friday,  but  very  inferior  to  the 
last.  Phillpotts  got  a  terrific  dressing  from  Lord  Grey,  and 
was  handled  not  very  delicately  by  Goderich  and  Durham, 
though  the  latter  was  too  coarse.  He  had  laid  himself  very 
open,  and,  able  as  he  is,  he  has  adopted  a  tone  and  style 


1832]  EVERYBODY  OUT   OF  TOWN.  89 

inconsistent  with  his  lawn  sleeves,  and  unusual  on  the  Episco- 
pal Bench.  He  is  carried- away  by  his  ambition  and  his  alarm, 
and  horrifies  his  brethren,  who  feel  all  the  danger  (in  these 
times)  of  such  a  colleague.  The  episode  of  which  he  was  the 
object  was,  of  course,  the  most  amusing  part  of  the  whole. 

JVeicmarket,  April  22d. — 111  and  laid  up  with  the  gout 
for  this  week  past.  Came  here  on  Friday,  the  20th.  The 
carrying  of  the  second  reading  of  the  Bill  seems  to  have 
produced  no  effect.  Everybody  has  gone  out  of  town,  the 
Tories  in  high  dudgeon.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  has 
entered  a  protest  with  all  the  usual  objections,  which  has 
been  signed  by  a  whole  rabble  of  Peers,  but  not  by  Lyndhurst, 
Ellenborough,  or  Carnarvon,  who  monopolize  the  brains  of  the 
party ;  they  declined.  In  the  mean  time  things  look  better. 
Wharncliffe,  Harrowby,  and  Haddington,  have  had  two  inter- 
views with  Lyndhurst  and  Ellenborough,  and  though  they 
did  not  go  into  particulars,  the  result  was  satisfactory,  and 
a  strong  disposition  evinced  to  cooperation  and  moderation. 
It  was  agreed  they  should  meet  again  next  week,  and  see 
what  could  be  arranged.  On  Friday  Palmerston  sent  to 
Wharncliffe,  and  desired  to  see  him.  They  met,  and  Pal- 
merston told  him  that  he  came  from  Lord  Grey,  who  was 
desirous  of  having  an  interview  with  him,  adding  that  Lord 
Gr^y  had  now  become  convinced  that  he  might  make  much 
more  extensive  concessions  than  he  had  ever  yet  contem- 
plated. He  added  that  Lord  Grey  would  rather  see  Wharn- 
cliffe alone,  without  Harrowby,  whose  manner  was  so  snappish 
and  unpleasant  that  he  could  not  talk  so  much  at  his  ease 
as  he  would  to  Wharncliffe  alone.  Wharncliffe  replied  that 
he  could  have  no  objection  to  see  Lord  Grey,  fyut  that  he 
must  fairly  tell  him  his  situation  was  no  longer  the  same, 
having  put  himself  in  amicable  communication  with  Lynd- 
hurst and  Ellenborough;  that  the  concurrence  of  the  Tories 
was  indispensable  to  him  and  his  friends  to  affect  the  altera- 
tions they  contemplated,  and  he  could  not  do  any  thing  which 
might  have  to  them  the  appearance  of  underhand  dealing; 
that  he  could  tell  Lyndhurst  and  Ellenborough,  and  if  they 
made  no  objection  he  would  see  Lord  Grey.  Ellenborough 
was  gone  out  of  town,  but  he  went  to  Lyndhurst,  who  im- 
mediately advised  him  to  see  Lord  Grey,  and  said  it  was 
most  desirable  they  should  be  made  acquainted  with  the 
views  and  disposition  of  Government,  and  he  undertook  to 
write  word  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington  of  all  that  had  passed. 


93  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

Lord  Grey  was  unable  to  leave  Sheen  yesterday,  so  it  was 
arranged  that  the  meeting  should  be  delayed  until  Wharn- 
cliffe's  return  to  London.  The  Duke  of  Richmond  has,  how- 
ever, got  a  letter  of  four  sides  from  Grey,  empowering  him  to 
treat  here  with  Wharncliffe,  and  Stanley  and  Graham  being 
expected,  it  is  very  likely  some  progress  may  be  made. 
Nothing  can  promise  better,  and  if  the  chiefs  of  the  Tories 
can  be  brought  to  moderation  the  stupid  obstinacy  of  the 
mass  will  not  matter,  and  I  do  not  think  they  will  dare  hold 
out,  for  when  a  negotiation  on  such  a  conciliatory  basis  is 
proposed,  a  terrible  case  would  be  made  hereafter  against 
those  who  should  refuse  to  listen  to  it.  The  advantages  are 
so  clear  that  nothing  would  make  them  persist  in  the  line  of 
uncompromising  opposition  but  an  unconquerable  repugnance 
to  afford  a  triumph  to  the  Waverers,  which  a  successful  termi- 
nation would  do ;  not  that  they  would  profit  by  it,  for  they 
are  so  few,  and  those  who  will  have  been  wrong  so  many, 
that  clamor  will  silence  justice,  and  a  thousand  excuses  and 
pretenses  will  be  found  to  deprive  them  of  their  rightful 
credit.  It  is  a  long  time — not  probably  since  the  days  of 
Charles  II. — that  this  place  (Newmarket)  has  been  the  theatre 
of  a  political  negotiation,  and,  conceding  the  importance  of 
the  subject,  the  actors  are  amusing — Richmond,  Graham, 
Wharncliffe,  and  myself.  By-the-by  it  is  perfectly  true  that 
(if  I  have  not  mentioned  it  before)  the  Royal  carriages  were 
all  ready  the  morning  of  the  decision  of  the  second  reading 
to  take  the  King  to  the  House  of  Lords  to  prorogue  Parlia- 
ment, and  on  Tuesday  the  Peers  would  have  appeared  in  the 
Gazette. 

London,  May  12th. — Nothing  written  for  a  long  time,  nor 
had  I  any  thing  to  write  till  a  few  days  ago.  From  the  time 
of  Wharncliffe's  departure  I  heard  nothing,  and  I  bitterly  re- 
gret now  not  having  been  in  town  last  week.1  The  Committee 
stood  for  Monday ;  on  Friday  se'nnight  last  I  was  at  Bucken- 
ham,  when  the  Duke  of  Rutland  told  me  he  was  going  to 
London,  that  they  meant  to  divide  on  Monday  on  a  proposal 
to  postpone  Schedules  A  and  B  till  after  C  and  D,  and  ex- 

1  [It  was  on  the  7th  of  May  that  the  Lords  wont  into  Committee  on  the  Bill, 
and  Lord  Lyndhurst's  motion  to  postpone  the  disfranchising  clauses  until  after 
the  ^franchising  clauses  had  been  agreed  to  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  thirty- 
five  against  the  Government.  The  seventeen  Peers  who  had  assisted  to  carry 
the  second  reading  on  the  llth  of  April  relapsed  into  the  Conservative  ranks, 
and  the  result  was,  for  the  moment,  such  as  to  stop  the  progress  of  the  Bill  and 
turn  out  the  Government.] 


1332.]  WHARNCLIFFE'S  DEFENSE.  91 

pected  to  beat  the  Government ;  I  wrote  by  that  post  to  Lady 
Harrowby,  saying  I  hoped  this  was  not  true,  and  that  if  it  was 
it  appeared  to  me  most  injudicious.  On  Tuesday  I  received 
by  the  post  a  letter  from  Wnarncliffe,  saying  that  they  had 
been  in  frequent  communication  with  Ellenborough  and  Lynd- 
hurst,  that  the  Opposition  were  prepared  to  make  great  and 
satisfactory  concessions,  and  he  thought  all  would  go  off  well. 
The  only  difficulty  he  apprehended  was  from  the  postpone- 
ment of  the  disfranchising  clause,  which  the  Tories  insisted 
on,  and  to  which  he  and  Harrowby  had  thought  it  right  to 
agree.  The  next  day  I  received  a  second  letter,  with  an  ac- 
count of  the  debate  and  its  consequences,  to  which  I  wrote 
him  a  trimming  reply,  and  another  to  Lady  Harrowby,  ex- 
pressing my  sentiments  on  their  conduct  on  the  occasion. 
Before  all  this  happened  Wharncliffe  had  had  to  encounter 
abuse  of  every  kind,  and  he  has  certainly  continued  to  play 
his  cards  in  such  a  way,  from  first  to  last,  as  to  quarrel  with 
Whigs  and  Tories  in  succession.  With  very  good  intentions, 
and  very  honest,  he  has  exposed  himself  to  every  reproach  of 
insincerity,  intrigue,  and  double-dealing. 

On  arriving  in  town  I  found  a  note  from  him,  desiring 
I  would  see  him  and  hear  his  defense  of  himself  before  I 
expressed  elsewhere  the  opinion  I  had  given  to  him.  Ac- 
cordingly I  went  to  Boodle's,  where  I  found  him,  and  he 
immediately  began  his  case.  He  said  that  on  his  return  to 
town  he  saw  Lord  Grey,  who  said  that  he  wished  to  know 
what  were  the  intentions  of  his  party,  and  how  far  they 
were  disposed  to  go,  and  what  concessions  they  looked  for. 
He  replied  that  Lord  Grey  must  understand  that  he  now 
stood  in  a  very  different  position,  and  that,  reunited  as  he 
was  with  the  Tories,  he  must  act  with  them — much,  in  short, 
what  he  had  before  said  to  Palmerston.  They  then  discussed 
the  question,  and  he  said  that  there  was  one  point  for  which 
Lord  Grey  ought  to  be  prepared,  and  that  he  knew  the  Tories 
were  much  bent  upon  proposing  the  postponement  of  Sched- 
ules A  and  B.  Lord  Grey  said  this  would  be  productive  of 
the  greatest  embarrassment,  that  it  would  be  a  thing  they 
could  not  agree  to,  and  he  hoped  he  would  do  all  in  his  power 
to  prevent  it.  Wharncliffe  said  that  he  would  endeavor,  but 
he  believed  they  were  very  eager  about  it,  and  he  added  that 
Lord  Grey  might  be  sure  he  would  support  nothing  calculated 
to  interfere  with  the  essential  provisions  of  the  Bill.  After 
this  his  and  Harrowby's  communications  with  Ellenborough 


92  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

and  his  friends  continued,  and  on  the  Saturday  (I  think) 
Lyndhurst  told  him  that  the  Tories  were  so  irrevocably  bent 
upon  this,  and  that  they  were  go  difficult  to  manage  and  so 
disposed  to  fly  off,  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  give 
way  to  them,  and  it  must  be  proposed,  though  he  would  glad- 
ly have  waived  it,  but  that  was  impossible  ;  upon  which  Har- 
rowby  and  Wharncliffe  gave  in  and  agreed  to  support  it. 
One  of  them  (Haddington,  I  think)  suggested  that  Wharncliffe 
ought  to  communicate  this  intention  to  Lord  Grey,  to  which, 
however,  Lyndhurst  objected,  said  that  the  Tories  were  sus- 
picious, had  already  taken  umbrage  at  the  communications 
between  Wharncliffe  and  Grey,  and  that  it  must  not  be.  To 
this  prohibition  Wharncliffe  fatally  submitted,  and  accordingly 
not  a  word  was  said  by  anybody  till  the  afternoon  of  the  de- 
bate, when,  just  before  it  began,  Wharncliffe  told  the  Duke 
of  Richmond,  who  of  course  told  Lord  Grey.  Wharncliffe  at 
the  same  time  had  some  conversation  with  John  Russell  and 
Stanley,  who  strongly  deprecated  this  intention,  but  it  was  too 
late  to  arrange  or  compromise  any  thing  then.  The  debate 
came  on ;  the  proposition  was  made  in  a  very  aggravating 
speech  by  Lyndhurst,  and  on  its  being  carried  Lord  Grey 
threw  up  the  Bill  and  the  Government  in  a  passion.  It  is  the 
more  remarkable  that  they  should  have  taken  this  course  at 
once,  because  they  certainly  had  very  strong  reason  to  doubt 
whether  the  King  would  consent  to  a  creation  of  Peers,  though 
they  probably  thought  he  might  be  bullied  upon  an  occasion 
which  they  fancied  they  could  turn  to  great  account ;  but  he 
was  stout  and  would  not  hear  of  it. 

The  day  after  the  debate  Grey  and  Brougham  Avent  down 
to  Windsor  and  proposed  to  the  King  to  make  fifty  Peers. 
They  took  with  them  a  minute  of  Cabinet  signed  by  all  the 
members  except  the  Duke  of  Richmond.  Palmerston  pro- 
posed it  in  Cabinet,  and  Melbourne  made  no  objection.  His 
Majesty  took  till  the  next  day  to  consider,  when  he  accepted 
their  resignations,  which  was  the  alternative  they  gave  him. 
At  the  levee  the  same  day  nothing  occurred ;  the  King 
hardly  spoke  to  the  Duke,  but  he  afterward  saw  Lyndhurst 
(having  sent  for  him).  I  do  not  know  what  passed  between 
them,  but  the  Duke  of  Wellington  was  soon  sent  for.  The 
Duke  and  Lyndhurst  endeavored  to  prevail  on  Peel  to  take 
the  Government  upon  himself,  and  the  former  offered  to  act 
in  any  capacity  in  which  he  could  be  useful ;  but  Peel  would 
not.  Some  communication  also  took  place  between  Lynd- 


1832.]  THE   BIRMINGHAM   UNION.  93 

hurst  and  Harrowby,  but  the  latter  declared  at  once  he  would 
support  the  new  Government,  but  not  take  office.  When  Peel 
finally  declined,  the  Duke  accepted,  and  yesterday,  at  three 
o'clock,  he  went  to  St.  James's.  The  King  saw  Peel  and  the 
Speaker.  Nothing  is  known  of  the  formation  of  the  Cabinet, 
but  the  reports  were  first  that  Alexander  Baring  was  to  be 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and  since  that  he  has  refused 
on  account  of  his  health,  and  that  Lyndlmrst  is  to  go  to  the 
King's  Bench,  Tenterden  to  retire,  and  the  Great  Seal  to  be 
put  in  commission. 

The  first  act  of  the  Duke  was  to  advise  the  King  to  re- 
ject the  address  of  the  Birmingham  Union,  which  he  did,  and 
said  he  knew  of  no  such  body.  All  very  proper.  In  the 
morning  I  called  upon  Wood  at  the  Treasury,  to  explain  to 
him  that  I  had  never  been  cognizant  of  the  late  proceedings 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  that  I  was  far  from  approving  the 
conduct  of  my  old  associates.  He  said  he  had  never  believed 
that  I  was  any  party  to  it,  and  regretted  that  I  had  not  been 
in  town,  when  it  was  just  possible  I  might  have  persuaded 
them  of  the  unworthiness  of  the  course  they  were  taking. 
He  said  that  I  did  not  know  how  bad  it  was,  for  that  Wharn- 
cliffe  had  distinctly  said  that  if  such  a  thing  was  proposed 
he  should  oppose  it,  and  that  Palmerston  was  present  when 
he  said  so.  This  Wharncliffe  positively  denies,  and  yester- 
day he  went  to  Palmerston  to  endeavor  to  explain,  taking 
with  him  a  minute  which  he  said  he  had  drawn  up  at  the 
time  of  all  that  passed,  but  which  he  had  never  before  shown 
or  submitted  for  correction,  and  which  Palmerston  told  him 
was  incorrect,  inasmuch  as  it  omitted  that  engagement. 
They  are  at  issue  as  to  the  fact.  The  position  of  the  re- 
spective parties  is  curious.  The  Waverers  undertook  a  task 
of  great  difficulty  with  slender  means,  and  they  accomplished 
it  with  complete  success.  All  turned  out  as  they  expected 
and  desired,  but,  after  having  been  in  confidential  communi- 
cation with  both  parties,  they  have  contrived  mortally  to 
offend  both,  and  to  expose  themselves  to  odium  from  every 
quarter,  and  to  a  universal  imputation  of  insincerity  and 
double-dealing,  and  this  without  any  other  fault  than  mis- 
management and  the  false  position  in  which  they  found 
themselves,  without  influence  or  power,  between  two  mighty 
parties.  The  Tories,  who  have  exhibited  nothing-  but  obsti- 
nacy and  unreasonableness,  and  who  thwarted  the  Waverers 
by  every  means  they  could  devise,  have  reaped  all  the  benc- 


94  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

fit  of  their  efforts,  and  that  without  admitting1  that  they 
were  right,  or  thanking  them  for  bringing  matters  to  this 
pass.  They  are  triumphant,  in  spite  of  all  they  did  to  pre- 
vent their  own  triumph,  and  have  had  all  the  spiteful  pleasure 
of  abuse  and  obloquy,  all  the  glory  of  consistency,  and  the 
satisfaction  of  pertinacity,  with  all  the  advantages  that  an  op- 
posite line  of  conduct  promised  to  give  them.  [Their  triumph 
was  of  short  duration,  and  nothing  so  complete  as  their  final 
discomfiture.] 

The  King  took  leave  of  his  Ministers  with  a  great  effusion 
of  tenderness,  particularly  to  Richmond,  whom  he  entreated 
to  remain  in  office  ;  but  I  take  it  that  he  easily  consoles  him- 
self, and  does  not  care  much  more  for  one  Minister  than 
another. 

The  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons  was  not  so  violent 
as  might  have  been  expected,  and  the  Tories  were  greatly 
elated  with  the  divisions  on  Ebrington's  motion,  because  there 
was  a  majority  less  by  fifty-six  than  on  a  similar  motion 
when  the  Bill  was  rejected  in  October.  The  circumstances 
were,  however,  different,  and  some  would  not  vote  because 
they  disapprove  of  creating  Peers,  which  this  vote  would 
have  committed  them  to  approve  of.  There  is  so  much  of 
wonder,  and  curiosity,  and  expectation  abroad  that  there  is 
less  of  abuse  and  exasperation  than  might  have  been  expected, 
but  it  will  all  burst  forth.  The  town  is  fearfully  quiet.  What 
is  odd  enough  is  that  the  King  was  hissed  as  he  left  London 
the  other  day,  and  the  Duke  cheered  as  he  came  out  of  the 
Palace.  There  have  been  some  meetings,  with  resolutions  to 
support  the  Bill,  to  express  approbation  of  the  Ministers,  and 
to  protest  against  the  payment  of  taxes,  and  there  will  proba- 
bly be  a  good  deal  of  bustle  and  bluster  here  and  elsewhere  ; 
but  I  do  not  believe  in  real  tumults,  particularly  when  the  rab- 
ble and  the  unions  know  that  there  is  a  Government  which  will 
not  stand  such  things,  and  that  they  will  not  be  able  to  bandy 
compliments  with  the  Duke  as  they  did  with  Althorp  and 
John  Russell,  not  but  what  much  dissatisfaction  and  much  dis- 
quietude must  prevail.  The  funds  have  not  fallen,  which  is  a 
sign  that  there  is  no  alarm  in  the  City.  At  this  early  period 
of  the  business  it  is  difficult  to  form  any  opinion  of  what  will 
happen  ;  the  present  Government  in  opposition  will  again  be 
formidable,  but  I  am  disposed  to  think  things  will  go  on  and 
right  themselves  ;  we  shall  avoid  a  creation  of  Peers,  but  we 
must  have  a  Reform  Bill  of  some  sort,  and  perhaps  a  harmless 


1832.]  INDIGNATION   OF   THE   TORIES.  95 

one  after  all,  and  if  the  elements  of  disorder  can  be  resolved 
into  tranquillity  and  order  again,  we  must  not  quarrel  with  the 
means  that  have  been  employed,  nor  the  quantum  of  moral  in- 
justice that  has  been  perpetrated. 

The  Tories  are  very  indignant  with  Peel  for  not  taking 
office,  and  if,  as  it  is  supposed,  he  is  to  support  Government 
and  the  Bill  out  of  office,  and,  when  all  is  over,  come  in,  it  is 
hardly  worth  while  for  such  a  farce  to  deprive  the  King  and 
the  country  of  his  services  in  the  way  that  they  could  be 
most  useful,  but  he  is  still  smarting  under  Catholic  question 
reminiscences,  while  the  Duke  is  more  thick-skinned.  After 
he  had  carried  the  Catholic  question  the  world  was  prepared 
for  a  good  deal  of  versatility  on  his  part,  but  it  was  in  mere 
derision  that  (after  his  speech  on  Reform  in  1830)  it  used  to 
be  said  that  he  would  very  likely  be  found  proposing  a  Bill  of 
Reform,  and  here  he  is  coming  into  office  for  the  express 
purpose  of  carrying  on  this  very  Bill  against  which  the  other 
day  he  entered  a  protest  which  must  stare  him  in  the  face 
through  the  whole  progress  of  it,  or,  if  net,  to  bring  in 
another  of  the  same  character,  and  probably  nearly  of  the 
same  dimensions.  Pretexts  are,  however,  not  wanting,  and 
the  necessity  of  supporting  the  King  is  made  paramount  to 
every  other  consideration.  The  Duke's  worshipers  (a  numer- 
ous class)  call  this  the  finest  action  of  his  life,  though  it  is 
difficult  to  perceive  in  what  the  grandeur  of  it  consists,  or 
the  magnitude  of  the  sacrifice.  However,  it  is  fair  to  wait 
a  little,  and  hear  from  his  own  lips  his  exposition  of  the  mode 
in  which  he  intends  to  deal  with  this  measure,  and  how  he 
will  reconcile  what  he  has  hitherto  said  with  what  he  is  now 
about  to  do.  Talleyrand  is  of  course  in  a  state  of  great 
consternation,  which  will  be  communicated  like  an  electrical 
shock  to  the  Powers  specially  favored  and  protected  by  the 
late  Government — Leopold  and  Dom  Pedro,  for  instance.  It 
will  be  a  difficult  thing  for  the  Duke  to  deal  with  some  of 
the  questions  on  which  he  has  committed  himself  pretty  con- 
siderably while  in  opposition,  both  with  respect  to  foreign 
politics  and  especially  Irish  education. 

Monday,  May  \kth. — Nothing  more  was  known  yesterday, 
but  everybody  was  congregated  at  the  clubs,  asking,  discuss- 
ing, and  wondering.  There  was  a  great  meeting  at  Apsley 
House,  when  it  was  supposed  every  thing  was  settled.  The 
Household  went  yesterday  to  St.  James's  to  resign  their  sticks 
and  badges ;  among  the  rest  Lord  Foley.  The  King  was 


96  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVIII 

very  civil  to  him ;  made  him  sit  down  and  said,  "  Lord  Foley, 
you  are  a  young  man."  "  Sir,  I  am  afraid  I  cannot  flatter 
myself  that  I  have  any  right  to  that  appellation."  "  Oh,  yes  ; 
you  are  a  young1  man — at  all  events  in  comparison  with  me — 
and  you  will  probably  come  into  office  again ;  but  I  am  an  old 
man,  and  I  am  afraid  T  shall  not  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
you  there."  It  is  supposed  that  this  coup  has  been  preparing 
for  some  time.  All  the  Royal  Family,  bastards  and  all,  have 
been  incessantly  at  the  King,  and.  he  has  probably  had  more 
difficulty  in  the  long-run  in  resisting  the  constant  importu- 
nity of  his  entourage,  and  of  his  womankind  particularly,  than 
the  dictates  of  his  Ministers ;  and  between  this  gradual  but 
powerful  impression,  and  his  real  opinion  and  fears,  he  was 
not  sorry  to  seize  the  first  good  opportunity  of  shaking  off 
the  Whigs.  When  Lord  Anglesey  went  to  take  leave  of  him 
at  Windsor  he  was  struck  with  the  change  in  his  sentiments, 
and  told  Lady  Anglesey  so,  who  repeated  it  to  my  brother. 

It  is  gratifying  to  find  that  those  with  whom  I  used  to 
dispute,  and  who  would  hear  of  nothing  but  rejecting  the 
second  reading,  noAV  admit  that  my  view  was  the  correct  one, 
and  Vesey  Fitzgerald,  with  whom  I  had  more  than  one  dis- 
cussion, complimented  me  very  handsomely  upon  the  justifi- 
cation of  my  view  of  the  question  which  the  event  had 
afforded.  The  High  Tories,  of  course,  will  never  admit  that 
they  could  have  been  wrong,  and  have  no  other  resource  but 
to  insist  boldly  that  the  King  never  would  have  made  Peers 
at  all.1 

London,  May  Yith. — The  events  of  the  last  few  days  have 
passed  with  a  rapidity  which  hardly  left  time  to  think  upon 
them — such  sudden  changes  and  transitions  from  rage  to 
triumph  on  one  side,  and  from  foolish  exultation  to  mortifica- 
tion and  despair  on  the  other.  The  first  impression  was  that 
the  Duke  of  Wellington  would  succeed  in  forming  a  Govern- 
ment, with  or  without  Peel.  The  first  thing  he  did  was  to  try 
and  prevail  upon  Peel  to  be  Prime  Minister,  but  he  was  inex- 
orable. He  then  turned  to  Baring,2  who,  after  much  hesitation, 
agreed  to  be  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  The  work  went 
on,  but  with  difficulty,  for  neither  Peel,  Goulburn,  nor  Croker, 

1  [Every  one  knows  how  sliort-lived  were  the  expectations  caused  hy  the 
temporary  resignation  of  Lord  Grey's  Government.    It  will  be  seen  in  the  fol- 
lowing pages  how  soon  the  vision  passed  away  ;  but  the  foregoing  passages  are 
retained  precisely  because  they  contain  a  vivid  and  faithful  picture  of  the  state 
of  opinion  at  the  moment.] 

2  [Alexander  Baring,  afterward  Lord  Ashburton.] 


IS.T.'.J  A    MEMORABLE  NKiliT.  07 

would  take  office.  They  then  tried  the  Speaker,  who  was 
mightily  tempted  to  become  Secretary  of  State,  but  still  doubt- 
ing and  fearing,  and  requiring  time  to  make  up  his  mind.  At 
an  interview  with  the  Duke  and  Lyndhurst  at  Apsley  House 
he  declared  his  sentiments  on  the  existing  state  of  affairs  in  a 
speech  of  three  hours,  to  the  unutterable  disgust  of  Lynd- 
hurst, who  returned  home,  flung  himself  into  a  chair,  and  said 
that  "  he  could  not  endure  to  have  any  thing  to  do  with  such 
a  damned  tiresome  old  bitch.''''  After  these  three  hours  of 
oratory  Manners  Sutton  desired  to  have  till  the  next  morning 
(Monday)  to  make  up  his  mind,  which  he  again  begged  might 
be  extended  till  the  evening.  On  that  evening  (Monday) 
ensued  the  memorable  night  in  the  House  of  Commons,  which 
everybody  agrees  was  such  a  scene  of  violence  and  excitement 
as  never  had  been  exhibited  within  those  walls.  Tavistock 
told  me  he  had  never  heard  any  thing  at  all  like  it,  and  to  his 
dying  day  should  not  forget  it.  The  House  was  crammed  to 
suffocation ;  every  violent  sentiment  and  vituperative  expres- 
sion was  received  with  shouts  of  approbation,  yet  the  violent 
speakers  were  listened  to  with  the  greatest  attention.1  Tom 
Buncombe  made  one  of  his  blustering  Radical  harangues,  full 
of  every  sort  of  impertinence,  which  was  received  with 
immense  applause,  but  which  contrasted  with  an  admirable 
speech,  full  of  dignity,  but  also  of  sarcasm  and  severity,  from 
John  Russell — the  best  he  ever  made.  The  conduct  of  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  in  taking  office  to  carry  the  Bill,  which 
was  not  denied,  but  which  his  friends  feebly  attempted  to 
justify,  was  assailed  with  the  most  merciless  severity,  and 
(what  made  the  greatest  impression)  was  condemned  (though 
in  more  measured  terms)  by  moderate  men  and  Tories,  such 
as  Inglis  and  Davies  Gilbert.  Baring,  who  spoke  four  times, 
at  last  proposed  that  there  should  be  a  compromise,  and  that 
the  ex-Ministers  should  resume  their  seats  and  carry  the  Bill. 
This  extraordinary  proposition  was  drawn  from  him  by  the 
state  of  the  House,  and  the  impossibility  he  at  once  saw  of 
forming  a  new  Government,  and  without  any  previous  concert 
with  the  Duke,  who,  however,  entirely  approved  of  what  IK; 
said.  After  the  debate  Baring  and  Sutton  went  to  Apsley 
House,  and  related  to  the  Duke  what  had  taken  place,  the 
former  saying  he  would  face  a  thousand  devils  rather  than 
such  a  House  of  Commons.  From  that  moment  the  whole 

1  [The  debate  arose  on  a  petition  of  the  City  of  London,  praying  that  the 
II .'ii^-  would  refuse  supplies  until  the  Reform  Bill  had  become  law.] 

27 


98  REIGN   CF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVIII 

thing  was  at  an  end,  and  the  next  morning  (Tuesday)  the 
Duke  repaired  to  the  King,  and  told  him  that  he  could  not 
form  an  Administration.  This  communication,  for  which  the 
debate  of  the  previous  night  had  prepared  everybody,  was 
speedily  known,  and  the  joy  and  triumph  of  the  Whigs  were 
complete. 

The  King  desired  the  Duke  and  Lyndhurst  (for  they  went 
together)  to  advise  him  what  he  should  do.  They  advised  him 
to  write  to  Lord  Grey  (which  he  did),  informing  him  that  the 
Duke  had  given  up  the  commission  to  form  a  Government, 
that  he  had  heard  of  what  had  fallen  from  Mr.  Baring  in  the 
House  of  Commons  the  night  before  on  the  subject  of  a  com- 
promise, and  that  he  wished  Lord  Grey  to  return  and  resume 
the  Government  upon  that  principle.  Lord  Grey  sent  an 
answer  full  of  the  usual  expressions  of  zeal  and  respect,  but 
saying  that  he  could  give  no  answer  until  he  had  consulted 
his  colleagues.  He  assembled  his  Cabinet,  and  at  five  o'clock 
the  answer  was  sent.1 

Yesterday  morning  Lord  Grey  saw  the  King ;  but  up  to 
last  night  nothing  was  finally  settled,  every  thing  turning 
upon  the  terms  to  be  exacted,  some  of  the  violent  of  the 
party  desiring  they  should  avail  themselves  of  this  oppor- 
tunity to  make  Peers,  both  to  show  their  power  and  increase 
their  strength ;  the  more  moderate,  including  Lord  Grey 
himself  and  many  of  the  old  Peer-makers,  were  for  sparing 
the  King's  feelings  and  using  their  victory  with  moderation, 
all,  however,  agreeing  that  the  only  condition  on  which  they 
could  return  was  the  certainty  of  carrying  the  Reform  Bill 
unaltered,  either  by  a  creation  of  Peers  or  by  the  secession 
of  its  opponents.  Up  to  the  present  moment  the  matter 
stands  thus :  the  King  at  the  mercy  of  the  Whigs,  just  as 
averse  as  ever  to  make  Peers,  the  violent  wishing  to  press 
him,  the  moderate  wishing  to  spare  him,  all  parties  railing  at 
each  other,  the  Tories  broken  and  discomfited,  and  meditating 
no  further  resistance  to  the  Reform  Bill.  The  Duke  is  to 
make  his  expose  to-night. 

Peel,  who  has  kept  himself  out  of  the  scrape,  is  strongly 
suspected  of  being  any  thing  but  sorry  for  the  dilemma  into 
which  the  Duke  has  got  himself,  and  they  think  that  he  secretly 
encouraged  him  to  persevere,  with  promises  of  present  sup- 
port and  future  cooperation,  with  a  shrewd  anticipation  of 

1  [These  communications  1-ave  been  published  in  the  "  Correspondence  of 
Earl  Grey  with  William  IV.,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  406-411.] 


1882.]  THE   KING'S   JOY.  99 

the  fate  that  awaited  him.  I  am  by  no  means  indisposed  to 
give  credit  to  this,  for  I  well  remember  the  wrath  of  Peel 
when  the  Duke's  Government  was  broken  up  in  1830,  and  the 
various  instances  of  secret  dislike  and  want  of  real  cordiality 
which  have  peeped  from  under  a  decent  appearance  of  union 
and  friendship.  Nothing  can  be  more  certain  than  that  he  is 
in  high  spirits  in  the  midst  of  it  all,  and  talks  with  great  com- 
placency of  its  being  very  well  as  it  is,  and  that  the  salvation 
of  character  is  every  thing ;  and  this  from  him,  who  fancies  he 
has  saved  his  own,  and  addressed  to  those  who  have  forfeited 
theirs,  is  amusing. 

The  joy  of  the  King  at  what  he  thought  was  to  be  his 
deliverance  from  the  Whigs  was  unbounded.  He  lost  no  time 
in  putting  the  Duke  of  Wellington  in  possession  of  every 
thing  that  had  taken  place  between  him  and  them  upon  the 
subject  of  Reform,  and  with  regard  to  the  creation  of  Peers, 
admitting  that  he  had  consented,  but  saying  he  had  been  sub- 
jected to  every  species  of  persecution.  His  ignorance,  weak- 
ness, and  levity,  put  him  iu  a  miserable  light,  and  prove  him 
to  be  one  of  the  silliest  old  gentlemen  in  his  dominions ;  but  I 
believe  he  is  mad,  for  yesterday  he  gave  a  great  dinner  to  the 
Jockey  Club,  at  which  (notwithstanding  his  cares)  he  seemed 
in  excellent  spirits;  and  after  dinner  he  made  a  number  of 
speeches,  so  ridiculous  and  nonsensical,  beyond  all  belief  but 
to  those  who  heard  them,  rambling  from  one  subject  to 
another,  repeating  the  same  thing  over  and  over  again,  and 
altogether  such  a  mass  of  confusion,  trash,  and  imbecility,  as 
made  one  laugh  and  blush  at  the  same  time. 

As  soon  as  the  Duke  had  agreed  to  try  and  form  a  Gov- 
ernment he  applied  to  the  Tories,  who  nearly  all  agreed  to 
support  him,  and  were  prepared  to  go  to  all  lengths,  even  to 
that  of  swallowing  the  whole  Bill  if  necessary ;  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle  particularly  would  do  any  thing.  These  were  the 
men  who  were  so  squeamish  that  they  could  not  be  brought 
to  support  amendments  even,  unless  they  were  permitted  to 
turn  the  schedules  upside-down,  straining  at  gnats  out  of 
office  and  swallowing  camels  in.  It  is  remarkable  that  after 
the  sacrifice  Wharncliffe  made  to  reingratiate  himself  with 
the  Tories,  incurring  the  detestation  and  abuse  of  the  Whigs, 
and  their  reproach  of  bad  faith,  the  former  have  utterly 
neglected  him,  taking  no  notice  of  him  whatever  during  the 
whole  of  their  proceedings  from  the  moment  of  the  division, 
leaving  him  in  ignorance  of  their  plans  and  intentions,  never 


100  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

inviting  him  to  any  of  their  meetings,  and  although  a  commu- 
nication was  made  by  Lyndhurst  to  Harrovvby  (they  wanted 
Harrowby  to  be  Prime  Minister),  the  latter  was  not  at  liberty 
to  impart  it  to  Wharncliffe.  It  is  not  possible  to  be  more 
deeply  mortified  than  he  is  at  the  treatment  he  has  expe- 
rienced from  these  allies  after  having  so  committed  himself. 
From  the  account  of  the  King's  levity -throughout  these  pro- 
ceedings, I  strongly  suspect  that  (if  he  lives)  he  will  go  mad. 
While  the  Duke  and  Lyndhurst  were  with  him,  at  one  of  the 
most  critical  moments  (I  forget  now  at  which)  he  said,  "  I 
have  been  thinking  that  something  is  wanting  with  regard  to 
Hanover.  Duke,  you  are  now  my  Minister,  and  I  beg  you 
will  think  of  this;  I  should  like  to  have  a  slice  of  Belgium, 
which  would  be  a  convenient  addition  to  Hanover.  Pray  re- 
member this,"  and  then  resumed  the  subject  they  were  upon. 
May  \%th. — The  night  before  last  the  Duke  made  his 
statement.  It  was  extremely  clear,  but  very  bald,  and  left 
his  case  just  where  it  was,  as  he  did  not  say  any  thing  that 
everybody  did  not  know  before.  His  friends,  however, 
extolled  it  as  a  masterpiece  of  eloquence,  and  a  complete 
vindication  of  himself.  The  Tory  Lords  who  spoke  after  him 
bedaubed  him  with  praise,  and  vied  with  each  other  in 
expressions  of  admiration.  These  were  Carnarvon,  Win- 
chels'ea,  and  Haddingtou.  There  was  not  one  word  from 
the  Duke  (nor  from  the  others)  indicative  of  an  intention  to 
secede,  which  was  what  the  Government  expected.  His 
speech  contained  a  sort  of  covert  attack  upon  Peel ;  in  fact, 
he  could  not  defend  himself  without  attacking  Peel,  for  if  the 
one  was  in  the  right  in  taking  office  the  other  must  have  been 
in  the  wrong  in  refusing  to  join  him.  There  was  nothing, 
however,  which  was  meant  as  a  reproach,  though  out  of  the 
House  the  Duke's  friends  do  not  conceal  their  anger  that  Peel 
would  not  embark  with  him  in  his  desperate  enterprise. 

Lyndhurst  was  exceedingly  able,  highly  excited,  very 
eloquent,  and  contrived  to  make  his  case  a  good  one.  It  was 
a  fine  display  and  very  short.  Carnarvon  and  Mansfield  were 
outrageously  violent,  but  both  in  their  way  clever,  and  parts 
of  the  speech  of  the  latter  were  eloquent.  Lord  Grey  was 
excellent,  short,  very  temperate  and  judicious,  exactly  what 
was  requisite  and  nothing  more.  Nobody  else  spoke  on  his 
side,  except  Mulgrave  at  the  end. 

The  debate,  however  interesting,  left  the  whole  matter  in 
uncertainty ;  and  the  next  day  the  old  question  began  again. 


1832.]  PEEL'S   STATEMENT.  101 

What  was  to  be  done — Peers  or  no  Peers?  A  Cabinet  sat 
nearly  all  day,  and  Lord  Grey  went  once  or  twice  to  the 
King.  He,  poor  man,  was  at  his  wits'  end,  and  tried  an  ex- 
periment (not  a  very  constitutional  one)  of  his  own  by  writing 
to  a  number  of  Peers,  entreating  them  to  withdraw  their  op- 
position to  the  Bill.  These  letters  were  written  (I  think) 
before  the  debate.  On  Thursday  nothing  was  settled,  and  at 
another  meeting  of  the  Cabinet  a  minute  was  drawn  up 
agreeing  to  offer  again  the  same  advice  to  the  King.  Before 
this  was  acted  upon  Richmond,  who  had  been  absent,  arrived, 
and  he  prevailed  upon  his  colleagues  to  cancel  it.  In  the 
mean  time  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  Lyndhurst,  and  other 
Peers,  had  given  the  desired  assurances  to  the  King,  which  he 
communicated  to  Lord  Grey.  These  were  accepted  as  suffi- 
cient securities,  and  declarations  made  accordingly  in  both 
Houses  of  Parliament.  If  the  Ministers  had.  again  gone  to 
the  King  with  this  advice,  it  is  impossible  to  say  how  it  would 
have  ended,  for  he  had  already  been  obstinate,  and  might  have 
continued  so  on  this  point,  and  he  told  Lord  Verulam  that  he 
thought  it  would  be  contrary  to  his  coronation  oath  to  make 
Peers.  Our  princes  have  strange  notions  of  the  obligations 
imposed  by  their  coronation  oath. 

On  Thursday  in  the  House  of  Commons  Peel  made  his 
statement,  in  which,  with  great  civility,  and  many  expressions 
of  esteem  and  admiration  of  the  Duke,  he  pronounced  as 
bitter  a  censure  of  his  conduct,  while  apparently  confining 
himself  to  the  defense  of  his  own,  as  it  was  possible  to  do, 
and  as  such  it  was  taken.  I  have  not  the  least  doubt  that  he 
did  it  con  amore,  and.  that  he  is  doubly  rejoiced  to  be  out  of 
the  scrape  himself  and  to  leave  others  in  it. 

May  31st. — Since  I  came  back  from  Newmarket  there 
has  not  been  much  to  write  about.  A  calm^has  succeeded 
the  storm.  Last  night  Schedules  A  and  B  were  galloped 
through  the  Committee,  and  they  finished  the  business.  On 
Thursday  next  the  Bill  will  probably  be  read  a  third  time. 
In  the  House  of  Lords  some  dozen  Tories  and  Waverers  have 
continued  to  keep  up  a  little  skirmish,  and  a  good  deal  of 
violent  language  has  been  bandied  about,  in  which  the  Whigs, 
being  the  winners,  have  shown  the  best  temper.  In  society 
the  excitement  has  ceased,  but  the  bitterness  remains.  The 
Tories  are,  however,  so  utterly  defeated,  and  the  victory  of 
their  opponents  is  so  complete,  that  the  latter  can  afford  to 
be  moderate  and  decorous  in  their  tone  and  manner  :  and  the 


102  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   17.  [C;IAP.  XVIII. 

former  are  exceedingly  sulky,  cockering  up  each  other  with 
much  self-gratulation  and  praise,  but  aware  that  in  the 
opinion  of  the  mass  of  mankind  they  are  covered  with  odium, 
ridicule,  and  disgrace.  Peel  and  the  Duke  are  ostensibly 
great  friends,  and  the  ridiculous  farce  is  still  kept  up  of 
each  admiring  what  he  would  not  do  himself,  but  what  the 
other  did. 

June  1st. — Met  the  Duke  of  Wellington  at  dinner  yes- 
terday, and  afterward  had  a  long  talk  with  him,  not  on 
politics.  I  never  see  and  converse  with  him  without  re- 
proaching myself  for  the  sort  of  hostility  I  feel  and  express 
toward  his  political  conduct,  for  there  are  a  simplicity,  a 
gayety,  and  natural  urbanity  and  good-humor  in  him,  which 
are  remarkably  captivating  in  so  great  a  man.  We  talked 
of  Dumont's  book  and  Louis  XVIIl.'s  "Memoirs."  I  said  I 
thought  the  "Memoirs"  were  not  genuine.  He  said  he  was 
sure  they  were,  that  they  bore  the  strongest  internal  evidence 
of  being  so,  particularly  in  their  accuracy  as  to  dates,  that  he 
was  the  best  chronologist  in  the  world,  and  that  he  knew  the 
day  of  the  week  of  every  event  of  importance.  He  once 
asked  the  Duke  when  he  was  born,  and  when  he  told  him  the 
day  of  the  month  and  year,  he  at  once  said  it  was  on  a  Tuesday ; 
that  he  (the  Duke)  had  remembered  that  throughout  the  book 
the  day  of  the  week  was  always  mentioned,  and  many  of  the 
anecdotes  he  had  himself  heard  the  King  tell.  He  then 
talked  of  him,  and  I  was  surprised  to  hear  him  say  that 
Charles  X.  was  a  cleverer  man,  as  far  as  knowledge  of  the 
world  went,  though  Louis  XVIII.  was  much  better  imformed 
— a  most  curious  remark,  considering  the  history  and  end  of 
each.  [Nothing  could  be  more  mistaken  and  untrue  than 
this  opinion.]  That  Louis  XVIII.  was  always  governed, 
and  a  favorite  indispensable  to  him.  At  the  Congress  of 
Vienna  the  Duke  was  deputed  to  speak  to  M.  de  Blacas,  his 
then  favorite,  and  tell  him  that  his  unpopularity  was  so 
great  in  France  that  it  was  desirable  he  should  not  return 
there.  Blacas  replied,  "  You  don't  know  the  King  ;  he  must 
have  a  favorite,  and  he  had  better  have  me  than  another. 
I  shall  go  ;  he  will  have  another,  and  you  shall  take  pains 
to  put  a  gentleman  in  that  situation,  for  he  is  capable  of 
taking  the  first  person  that  finds  access  to  him  and  the 
opportunity  of  pleasing  him."  He  added  that  he  should  not 
wonder  if  he  touk  Fouch6.  He  did  not  take  Fouche',  who  was 
not  aware  of  the  part  he  might  have  played,  but  he  took  De 


1S32.]  LOUIS  XVIII  S  FAVORITE.  103 

Gazes,  who  governed  him  entirely.  This  continued  till  the 
Royal  Family  determined  to  get  rid  of  him,  and  by  threaten- 
ing to  make  an  esclandre  and  leave  the  chateau  they  at  last 
succeeded,  and  De  Gazes  was  sent  as  Einbassador  to  London. 
Then  the  King  wrote  to  him  constantly,  sending  him  verses 
and  literary  scraps.  The  place  remained  vacant  till  accident 
threw  Madame  du  Cayla  in  his  way.1  She  was  the  daughter 
of  Talon,  who  had  been  concerned  in  the  affair  of  the  Marquis 
de  Favras,  and  she  sent  to  the  King  to  say  she  had  some  papers 
of  her  father's  relating  to  that  affair,  which  she  should  like 
to  give  into  his  own  hands.  He  saw  her  and  was  pleased 
with  her.  The  Royal  Family  encouraged  this  new  taste,  in 
order  to  get  rid  entirely  t)f  De  Gazes,  and  even  the  Duchesse 
d'Angouleme  promoted  her  success.  It  was  the  same  thing 
to  him  to  have  a  woman  as  a  man,  and  there  was  no  sexual 
question  in  the  matter,  as  what  he  wanted  was  merely  some 
one  to  whom  he  could  tell  every  thing,  consult  with  on  all 
occasions,  and  with  whom  he  could  bandy  literary  trifles. 
Madame  du  Gayla,  who  was  clever,  was  speedily  installed,  and 
he  directly  gave  up  De  Gazes.  He  told  the  Duke  that  he 
was  brouille  with  De  Gazes,  who  had  behaved  very  ill  to  him, 
but  he  had  nothing  specific  to  allege  against  him,  except 
that  his  manner  to  him  was  not  what  it  ought  to  have  been. 
The  Ministers  paid  assiduous  court  to  Madame  du  Cayla, 
imparted  every  thing  to  her,  and  got  her  to  say  what  they 
wanted  said  to  the  King;  she  acted  all  the  part  of  a  mistress, 
except  the  essential,  of  which  there  never  was  any  question. 
She  got  great  sums  of  money  from  him  and  very  valuable 
presents. 

June  18t7i. — Breakfasted  on  Thursday  with  Rogers,  and 
yesterday  at  the  Athenaeum  with  Henry  Taylor,  and  met  Mr. 
Gharles  Austin,  a  lawyer,  clever  man,  and  Radical.  The  Bills 
are  jogging  on  and  there  is  a  comparative  calm.  The  Whigs 
swear  that  the  Reformed  Parliament  will  be  the  most  aristo- 
cratic we  have  ever  seen,  and  Ellice  told  me  that  they  cannot 
hear  of  a  single  improper  person  likely  to  be  elected  for  any 
of  the  new  places.  [Their  choice  did  not  correspond  with 
this  statement  of  their  disposition.]  The  metropolitan  dis- 
tricts want  rank  and  talent.  The  Government  and  their 
people  have  now  found  out  what  a  fool  the  King  is,  and  it  is 
very  amusing  to  hear  them  on  the  subject.  Formerly,  when 

1  [This  lady  has  already  been  noticed  in  a  previous  portion  of  these  Me- 
moirs, when  she  visited  England.    See  vol.  i.,  p.  182.] 


104  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

(hoy  thought  they  had  him  fast,  he  was  very  honest  and 
rather  wise;  now  they  find  him  rather  shuffling  and  exceed- 
ingly silly.  When  Normanby  went  to  take  leave  of  him  on 
going  to  Jamaica,  he  pronounced  a  harangue  in  favor  of  the 
slave-trade,  of  which  he  has  always  been  a  great  admirer,  and 
expressed  sentiments  for  which  his  subjects  would  tear  him 
to  pieces  if  they  heard  them.  It  is  one  of  the  great  evils  of 
the  recent  convulsion  that  the  King's  imbecility  has  been  ex- 
posed to  the  world,  and  in  his  person  the  regal  authority  has 
fallen  into  contempt  ;  his  own  personal  unpopularity  is  not  of 
much  consequence  as  long  as  it  does  not  degrade  his  office; 
that  of  George  IV.  never  did,  so  little  so  that  he  could  always 
as  King  cancel  the  bad  impressions  which  he  made  in  his  in- 
dividual capacity,  and  he  frequently  did  so.  Walter  Scott  is 
arrived  here,  dying.  A  great  mortality  among  great  men; 
Goethe,  Perier,  Champollion,  Cuvier,  Scott,  Grant,  Mackin- 
tosh, all  died  within  a  few  weeks  of  each  other. 

June  25th. — At  Fern  Hill  all  last  week  ;  a  great  party, 
nothing  but  racing  and  gambling  ;  then  to  Shepperton,  arid 
to  town  on  Saturday.  The  event  of  the  races  was  the  King's 
having  his  head  knocked  with  a  stone.  It  made  very  little 
sensation  on  the  spot,  for  he  was  not  hurt,  and  the  fellow  was 
a  miserable-looking  ragamuffin.  It,  however,  produced  a 
great  burst  of  loyalty  in  both  Houses,  and  their  Majesties 
were  loudly  cheered  at  Ascot.  The  Duke  of  Wellington,  who 
had  been  the  day  before  mobbed  in  London,  also  reaped  a 
little  harvest  of  returning  popularity  from  the  assault,  and 
so  far  the  outrages  have  done  rather  good  than  harm. 

July  V&th. — The  suttee  case  was  decided  at  the  Privy 
Council  on  Saturday  last,  and  was  not  uninteresting.  The 
Chancellor,  Lord  President,  Graham,  John  Russell,  and  Grant, 
Sir  Edward  East,  the  Master  of  Rolls,  Vice-Chancellor,  Lord 
Amherst,  and  Lord  Wellesley,  were  present  (the  latter  not  the 
last  day).  Lushington  was  for  the  appeal,  and  Home  and 
Starkie  against.  The  former  made  two  very  able  and  ingen- 
ious speeches;  when  the  counsel  withdrew,  the  Lords  gave 
their  opinions  seriatim.  Leach  made  a  very  short  and  very 
neat  speech,  condemning  the  order  1  of  the  Governor-General, 
but  admitting  the  danger  of  rescinding  it,  and  recommending, 

1  [The  order  was  a  decree  of  the  Governor-General  of  India  abolishing  the 
practice  of  suttee,  against  ivhich  certain  Hindoos  appealed  to  the  King  in  Coun- 
cil. Another  party,  however,  were  in  favor  of  the  order,  arid  the  Kajah  Earn- 
rnohun  Roy  is  acting  in  this  country  as  their  agent.] 


1832.]  THE   PETITION  DISMISSED.  105 

therefore,  that  the  execution  of  it  should  be  suspended.  Sir 
Edward  East,  in  a  long-,  diffusive  harangue,  likewise  con- 
demned the  order,  but  was  against  suspension;  Sir  James 
Graham  was  against  the  order,  but  against  suspension;  Lord 
Amherst  the  same.  The  rest  approved  of  the  order  alto- 
gether. John  Russell  gave  his  opinion  very  well.  The  Chan- 
cellor was  prolix  and  confused  ;  he  hit  upon  a  bit  of  meta- 
physics in  one  of  the  cases  on  which  he  took  pleasure  in 
dilating.  The  result  was  that  the  petition  was  dismissed. 

I  know  nothing  of  politics  for  some  time  past.  The  Re- 
form fever  having  subsided,  people  are  principally  occupied 
with  speculations  on  the  next  elections.  At  present  there  is 
every  appearance  of  the  return  of  a  House  of  Commons  very 
favorable  to  the  present  Government,  but  the  Tory  party 
keeps  together  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  they  are  animated 
with  vague  hopes  of  being  able  to  turn  out  the  Ministry,  more 
from  a  spirit  of  hatred  and  revenge  than  from  any  clear  view 
of  the  practicability  of  their  carrying  on  the  Government.  I 
conceive,  however,  that  as  soon  as  Parliament  is  up  there  will 
be  a  creation  of  Peers.  In  the  House  of  Commons  the  Irish 
Tithe  question  has  been  the  great  subject  of  interest  and  dis- 
cussion. O'Connell  and  the  Irish  members  debate  and  adjourn 
just  as  they  please,  and  Althorp  is  obliged  to  give  way  to 
them.  When  Stanley  moved  for  leave  to  bring  in  his  Bill, 
he  detailed  his  plan  in  a  speech  of  two  hours.  They  thought 
iit  to  oppose  this,  which  is  quite  unusual,  and  O'Connell  did 
not  arrive  till  after  Stanley  had  sat  down.  Not  having  heard 
liis  speech  he  could  not  answer  him,  and  he  therefore  moved 
the  adjournment.  Upon  a  former  occasion,  during  the  Re- 
form Bill,  when  the  Tories  moved  an  adjournment  after  many 
hours'  debate,  the  Government  opposed  it,  and  voted  on 
through  the  night  till  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  ;  now  the 
Tories  were  ready  to  support  Government  against  the  Irish 
members,  but  they  would  not  treat  the  Radicals  as  they  did 
the  Tories,  and  then  on  a  subsequent  occasion  they  submitted 
to  have  the  debate  adjourned. 

O'Connell  is  supposed  to  be  horridly  afraid  of  the  cholera. 
He  has  dodged  about  between  London  and  Dublin,  as  the 
disease  appeared  first  at  one  and  then  the  other  place,  and 
now  that  it  is  everywhere  he  shrinks  the  House  of  Commons 
from  fear  of  the  heat  and  the  atmosphere.  The  cholera  is 
here,  and  diffuses  a  certain  degree  of  alarm.  Some  servants 
of  people  well  known  have  died,  and  that  frightens  all  other 


106  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

servants  out  of  their  wits,  and  they  frighten  their  masters  ;  the 
death  of  any  one  person  they  are  acquainted  with  terrifies 
people  much  more  than  that  of  twenty  of  whom  they  knew 
nothing.  As  long  as  they  read  daily  returns  of  a  parcel  of 
deaths  here  and  there  of  A,  B,  and  C,  they  do  not  mind,  but 
when  they  hear  that  Lady  such  a  one's  nurse,  or  Sir  some- 
body's footman  is  dead,  they  fancy  they  see  the  disease  actually 
at  their  own  door. 

July  15th. — I  had  a  good  deal  of  conversation  yesterday 
with  Lord  Duncannon  and  Lord  John  Russell  about  Ireland. 
The  debate  the  night  before  lasted  till  four  o'clock.  O'Connell 
made  a  furious  speech,  and  Dawson  the  other  evening  another, 
talking  of  resistance  and  of  his  readiness  to  join  in  it.  This 
drew  up  Peel,  who  had  spoken  before,  and  who,  when  attacked 
with  cries  of  "  Spoke  ! "  said,  "  Yes,  I  have  spoken,  but  I  will 
say  that  no  party  considerations  shall  prevent  my  supporting 
Government  in  this  measure,  and  giving  them  my  cordial 
support."  He  was  furious  with  Dawson,  and  got  up  in 
order  to  throw  him  over,  though  he  did  not  address  himself 
to  him,  or  to  any  thing  he  had  said  expressly.  John  Russell 
spoke  out  what  ought  to  have  been  said  long  ago,  that  the 
Church  could  not  stand,  but  that  the  present  clergymen 
must  be  paid.  Both  he  and  Duncannon  are  aware  of  the 
false  position  in  which  the  Government  is  placed,  pretending 
to  legislate  with  a  knowledge  that  their  laws  cannot  be  en- 
forced, and  the  latter  said  that,  whatever  might  be  done, 
the  Irish  would  take  nothing  at  the  hands  of  Stanley.  It 
is  unfortunate  that  his  attachment  to  the  Church  makes 
him  the  unfittest  man  in  the  country  to  manage  Irish  affairs, 
and  he  has  contrived  to  make  himself  so  personally  unpopular 
that  with  the  best  intentions  he  could  not  give  satisfaction. 
Under  these  circumstances  his  remaining  there  is  impossible, 
but  what  is  to  be  done  with  him  ?  He  is  of  such  importance 
in  the  House  of  Commons  that  they  cannot  part  with  him. 
I  asked  John  Russell  why  they  did  not  send  Hobhouse  to 
Ireland  and  make  Stanley  Secretary  of  War.  He  said  would 
he  consent  to  exchange  ?  that  he  was  tired  of  office,  and 
would  be  glad  to  be  out.  I  said  I  could  not  suppose  in  such 
an  emergency  that  he  would  allow  any  personal  considerations 
to  influence  him,  and  that  he  would  consent  to  whatever 
arrangement  would  be  most  beneficial  to  the  Government 
and  conducive  to  the  settlement  of  Irish  affairs.  The  truth 
is  (as  I  told  him)  that  they  are,  with  respect  to  Ireland,  in 


1802.]  VIEWS  OF   THE   PROTESTANTS.  107 

the  situation  of  a  man  who  has  got  an  old  house  in  which  he 
can  no  longer  live,  not  tenable  ;  various  architects  propose 
this  and  that  alteration,  to  build  a  room  here  and  pull  down 
one  there,  but  at  last  they  find  that  all  these  alterations  will 
only  serve  to  make  the  house  habitable  a  little  while  longer, 
that  the  dry  rot  is  in  it,  and  that  they  had  better  begin,  as 
they  will  be  obliged  to  end,  by  pulling  it  down  and  building 
up  a  new  one.  He  owned  this  was  true,  but  said  that  here 
another  difficulty  presented  itself  with  regard  to  Stanley — 
whether  he  would,  as  a  leading  member  of  the  Cabinet,  con- 
sent to  any  measures  which  might  go  so  much  further  than 
he  would  be  disposed  to  do.  I  said  that  I  could  not  imagine 
(whatever  might  be  his  predilections)  that  his  mind  was  not 
awakened  to  the  necessity  of  giving  way  to  the  state  of  things, 
and  that  he  might  consent  to  measures  which  he  felt  he  was 
not  a  fit  person  to  introduce  and  recommend.  He  assented 
to  this.  He  then  talked  of  the  views  of  the  Protestants,  of 
the  Lefroys,  etc.,  that  they  began  to  admit  the  necessity  of 
a  change,  but  by  no  means  would  consent  to  the  alienation 
of  Church  property  from  Protestant  uses,  that  they  were 
willing  where  there  was  a  large  parish  consisting  entirely 
of  Catholics  that  the  tithes  should  be  taken  from  the  rector 
of  such  parish  and  given  to  one  who  had  a  large  Protestant 
flock — an  arrangement  which  would  disgust  the  Catholics  as 
much  as  or  more  than  any  other,  and  be  considered  a  perfect 
mockery.  The  fact  is  we  may  shift  and  change  and  wriggle 
about  as  much  as  we  will,  we  may  examine  and  report  and 
make  laws,  but  tithe,  the  tithe  system  is  at  an  end.  The 
people  will  not  pay  them,  and  there  are  no  means  of  com- 
pelling them.  The  march  of  events  is  just  as  certain  as  that 
of  the  seasons.  The  question  which  is  said  to  be  beset  with 
difficulties  is  in  fact  very  easy — that  is,  its  difficulties  arise 
from  conflicting  interests  and  passions,  and  not  from  the 
uncertainty  of  its  operation  and  end.  Those  conflicting 
passions  are  certainly  very  great  and  very  embarrassing, 
and  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  deal  with  them,  but  it  seems  to 
me  that  the  wisest  policy  is  to  keep  our  eyes  steadfastly  fixed 
on  the  end,  and,  admitting  the  inevitable  conclusion,  labor 
to  bring  it  about  with  the  smallest  amount  of  individual  loss, 
the  greatest  general  benefit,  and  the  best  chance  of  perma- 
nence and  stability.  By  casting  lingering  looks  at  the  old 
system,  and  endeavoring  to  save  something  here  and  there, 
by  allowing  the  Church  to  remain  in  the  rags  and  tatters 


108  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [C.i.vr.  XVIII. 

of  its  old  supremacy,  we  shall  foster  those  hostile  feelings 
which  it  is  essential  to  put  down  forever,  and  leave  the 
seeds  of  grievance  and  hatred  to  spring'  up  in  a  future  harvest 
of  agitation  and  confusion. 

July  25th. — Nothing  of  moment  has  occurred  lately;  the 
dread  of  cholera  absorbs  everybody.  Mrs.  Smith,  young  and 
beautiful,  was  dressed  to  go  to  church  on  Sunday  morning, 
when  she  was  seized  with  the  disorder,  never  had  a  chance  of 
rallying,  and  died^at  eleven  at  night.  This  event,  shocking 
enough  in  itself  from  its  suddenness  and  the  youth  and  beauty 
of  the  person,  has  created  a  terrible  alarm;  many  people  have 
taken  flight,  and  others  are  suspended  between  their  hopes  of 
safety  in  country  air  and  their  dread  of  being  removed  from 
metropolitan  aid.  The  disease  spreads  gradually  in  all  direc- 
tions in  town  and  country,  but  without  appearing  like  an 
epidemic;  it  is  scattered  and  uncertain;  it  brings  to  light 
horrible  distress.  We,  who  live  on  the  smooth  and  plausible 
surface,  know  little  of  the  frightful  appearance  of  the  bowels 
of  society. 

Dom  Pedro  has  never  been  heard  of  since'  he  landed,  and 
nobody  seems  much  to  care  whether  he  or  Miguel  succeed. 
The  Tories  are  for  the  latter  and  the  Whigs  for  the  former. 
In  a  fourth  debate  on  the  Russian-Dutch  Loan  Ministers 
got  a  good  finale,  a  large  division,  and  a  brilliant  speech 
from  Stanley,  totally  unprepared  and  prodigiously  successful. 
Nothing  could  be  worse  in  point  of  tactics  than  renewing  this 
contest,  neither  party  having,  in  fact,  a  good  case.  Parlia- 
ment is  going  to  separate  soon,  and  the  cholera  will  accelerate 
the  prorogation;  not  a  step  has  been  made  toward  an  ap- 
proximation between  the  rival  parties,  who  appear  to  bo 
animated  against  each  other  with  unabated  virulence.  The 
moderate  Tories  talk  of  their  desire  to  see  the  Government 
discard  their  Radical  friends,  but  the  great  body  give  them  no 
encouragement  to  do  so  by  evincing  any  diminished  hostility 
to  them  as  a  party.  Opinions  are  so  different  as  to  the 
probable  composition  of  the  next  Parliament,  that  it  is 
difficult  to  arrive  at  any  satisfactory  conclusion  about  it. 
The  Tories  evidently  expect  that  they  shall  reappear  in  very 
formidable  strength,  though  in  particular  places  the  Tory 
party  is  entirely  crushed;  the  sooner  it  is  so  altogether  the 
better,  for  no  good  can  be  expected  from  it,  and  it  would  be 
far  better  to  erect  a  Conservative  party  upon  a  new  and 
broader  basis  than  to  try  and  bolster  up  this  worn-out, 


I  (82.]  THE   CHANCELLOR   AND   SUGDEX.  109 

prejudiced,  obstinate  faction.  But  the  times  are  difficult 
and  men  are  wanting;  the  middle  classes  are  pressing  on, 
and  there  are  men  enough  there  of  fortune,  energy,  activity, 
zeal,  and  ambition — no  Cannings  perhaps  or  Broughams,  but 
a  host  of  fellows  of  the  calibre  of  the  actors  in  the  old  French 
Constituent  Assembly. 

July  20th. — There  has  been  a  great  breeze  between  the 
Chancellor  and  Sugden,  abusing  and  retorting  upon  each 
other  from  their  respective  Houses  of  Parliament.  As  all 
personal  matters  excite  greater  interest  than  any  others,  so 
has  this.  Scott,  Lord  Eldon's  son,  died,  and  his  places  be- 
came vacant.  Brougham  had  recommended  their  abolition 
long  ago  in  his  evidence  before  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
both  publicly  and  privately.  Some  days  ago  Sugden  gave 
notice  to  Home  (Solicitor-General)  that  he  meant  to  put  a 
question  to  him  in  the  House  of  Commons  as  to  whether  these 
appointments  were  to  be  filled  up  or  not,  but  before  he  did 
so  (at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning)  the  writ  was  moved  for 
James  Brougham,  who  had  been  put  by  the  Chancellor  in 
Scott's  place.  Accordingly,  the  next  day,  Sugden  attacked 
the  appointment  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  though  he 
was  by  way  of  only  asking  a  question,  he  in  fact  made  a  long 
vituperative  ^»eech.  Nobody  was  there  to  reply.  Althorp 
said  he  knew  nothing  of  the  matter,  and  various  speeches 
were  made,  all  expressive  of  a  desire  that  the  appointment 
should  only  be  temporary.  Home  (it  seems)  had  never  told 
the  Chancellor  what  Sugden  said,  and  Denman,  who  had  no 
authority  from  him,  did  not  dare  get  up  and  say  that  it  was 
not  to  be  permanent.  Later  in  the  day,  having  received 
instructions  from  the  Chancellor,  he  did  get  up  and  say  so. 
The  next  day  Brougham  introduced  the  subject  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  and  attacked  Sugden  with  all  the  sarcasm  and  con- 
tumely which  he  could  heap  upon  him,  comparing  him  to  "  a 
crawling  reptile,"  etc.  Not  one  of  his  Tory  friends  said  a 
word,  and,  what  is  curious,  the  Duke  of  Wellington  praised 
Brougham  fcr  his  disinterestedness,  and  old  Eldon  defended 
the  place.  The  following  day  (Friday)  Sugden  again  brought 
the  matter  before  the  House  of  Commons,  complained  bit- 
terly of  the  Chancellor's  speech,  was  called  to  order  by  Stan- 
ley, when  the  Speaker  interfered,  and,  dexterously  turning 
Sugden's  attack  upon  the  newspaper  report,  enabled  him  to 
go  on.  A  violent  discussion  followed,  rather  awkward  for 
the  Chancellor,  whose  friends  endeavored  to  soften  the  thing 


110  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

down  by  denying  the  accuracy  of  the  report.  After  much 
acrimonious  debate  the  matter  ended.  Yesterday  the  Times, 
throwing  over  Brougham  and  Sugden,  asserted  the  accuracy 
of  its  own  reporter,  and  declared  that  whether  the  Chan- 
cellor was  right  or  wrong  to  have  uttered  them,  the  words 
were  spoken  by  him  exactly  as  they  had  been  reported.  Both 
parties  are  furious,  but  on  the  whole  the  Chancellor  seems  at 
present  to  have  the  worst  of  it,  for  it  is  worse  for  a  man  in 
his  station  to  be  in  the  wrong,  and  more  indecent  to  be  scur- 
rilous, than  for  an  individual  who  is  nothing.  Sugden  now 
declares  he  will  bring  on  a  motion  he  has  long  meditated  on 
the  subject  of  the  Court  of  Chancery,  in  which  he  will  exhibit 
to  the  world  the  whole  conduct  of  Brougham  since  he  has 
held  the  Great  Seal,  his  early  haste  and  precipitation,  his 
recent  carelessness  and  delay,  his  ignorance,  inattention,  and 
incompetence  for  the  office  he  holds.  In  this  he  expects  to 
be  supported  by  Wetherell,  Knight,  and  Pemberton,  three  of 
the  most  eminent  Chancery  lawyers,  while  Brougham  has 
nobody  but  Home  (of  the  profession)  to  defend  him.  If  this 
should  occur,  he  may  thank  himself,  for  he  would  put  Home 
there. 

Sir  Charles  Bagot  called  on  me  yesterday  ;  told  me  that 
he  thought  the  Belgian  question  was  at  last  oa  the  point  of 
being  settled,  that  the  King  of  Holland  had  made  "the  great 
concession,"  and  that  the  rest  must  soon  follow,  that  he  had 
never  passed  two  such  years  amid  such  difficulties,  the  King 
so  obstinate.  His  view  was  that  by  holding  out  and  main- 
taining a  large  army  events  would  produce  war,  and  that  he 
would  be  able  to  sell  himself  to  some  one  of  the  contending 
parties,  getting  back  Belgium  as  the  price  of  his  aid,  that  he 
now  only  gave  in  because  not  a  hope  was  left,  that  the  diffi- 
culties were  so  great  that  it  was  not  the  fault  of  this  Govern- 
ment that  matters  were  not  settled  before.  I  asked  him  how 
the  Dutch  had  contrived  to  make  such  an  exertion.  He  said 
it  was  very  creditable  to  them,  but  that  they  were  very  rich 
and  very  frugal,  and  had  lugged  out  their  hoards.  They  had 
saddled  themselves  with  a  debt  the  interest  of  which  amounts 
to  about  £700,000  a  year — a  good  deal  for  two  millions  of 
people. 

August  1st. — Here  is  an  anecdote  exhibiting  the  character 
of  Brougham,  hot,  passionate,  and  precipitate.  He  is  pre- 
paring his  Bill  for  the  amendment  of  the  Court  of  Chancery, 
by  which  the  patronage  is  to  be  done  away  with.  Compen- 


1832.-]  "COMPENSATION."  HI 

sation  was  to  be  given  to  the  present  interests,  but  upon  this 
recent  affair  between  Sugden  and  him,  to  revenge  himself 
upon  men  who  are  all  or  mostly  of  Sugden's  party,  he 
ordered  the  compensation  clauses  to  be  struck  out.  Sefton 
(who  is  a  sort  of  Sancho  to  him)  came  up  to  dinner  quite 
elated  at  having  heard  the  order  given.  "  I  wish,"  said  he, 
"you  had  heard  a  man  treated  as  I  did  in  the  Chancellor's 
room.  He  came  in  to  ask  him  about  the  Bill  he  was  drawing 
up.  '  I  suppose  the  compensation  clauses  are  to  be  put  in  ? ' 
'  Compensation  ? '  said  Brougham.  '  No,  by  God  !  no  com- 
pensation. Leave  them  out,  if  you  please.  They  chose  to 
attack  me,  and  they  shall  have  enough  of  it.' "  And  what  will 
be  the  end  of  all  this — that  the  Chancellor  shows  his  spite 
and  commits  himself,  shows  that  he  is  influenced  in  legislation 
by  personal  feelings,  and  incurs  the  suspicion  that  because 
he  cannot  get  a  compensation  for  his  brother,  he  is  resolved 
nobody  else  shall  have  any  ?  Althorp's  speech  about  the 
pensions  on  Monday  set  at  rest  the  question  of  compensation, 
and  if  these  offices  are  abolished,  the  Chancellor  cannot  pre- 
vent their  getting  it.  In  the  House  of  Lords  the  eternal 
Russian-Dutch  Loan  came  on  again.  The  Duke  made  a 
speech  and  Wynford  made  a  speech,  and  they  were  opposed 
to  each  other  ;  the  Duke  hit  the  right  nail  on  the  head,  and 
took  that  course  which  he  frequently  does,  and  which  is  such 
a  redeeming  quality  in  his  political  character — addressed 
himself  to  the  question  itself,  to  the  real  merits  of  it,  without 
making  it  a  mere  vehicle  for  annoying  the  Government. 
Aberdeen  sneered,  but  when  the  Duke  throws  over  his  people 
they  can  do  nothing. 

August  8th. — Pedro's  expedition,  which  always  has 
hobbled  along,  and  never  exhibited  any  of  that  dash  which 
is  essential  to  the  success  of  such  efforts,  may  be  considered 
hopeless  ;  Palmella  arrived  here  a  day  or  two  ago,  very  low, 
and  the  Regency  scrip  has  fallen  four  per  cent.  Nobody 
joins  them,  and  it  seems  pretty  clear  that?  one  coquin  for 
another,  the  Portugese  think  they  may  as  well  have  Miguel. 
The  Dutch  affair  is  not  yet  settled,  but  on  the  point  of  it ; 
for  the  fiftieth  time  a  "  little  hitch  "  has  again  arisen.  Last 
night,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  the  Chancellor,  in  one  of  his 
most  bungling  ways,  made  what  he  meant  to  be  a  sort  of 
amende  to  Sugden,  making  the  matter  rather  worse  than  it 
was  before,  at  least  for  his  own  credit,  for  he  said  that  "he 
had  nover  intended  to  give  pain,  which  he  of  all  thing's 


112  REIGN  OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

abhorred,"  and  that  he  had  not  been  at  all  in  a  passion — both 
false,  and  the  latter  being  in  fact  his  only  excuse.  I  sat  next 
to  Melbourne  at  dinner,  who  concurred  in  the  judgment  of 
the  world  on  the  whole  transaction,  and  said,  "The  real  truth 
is,  he  was  in  a  great  rage,  for  he  had  forgotten  all  his  own 
evidence  and  his  own  speeches,  and  he  meant  to  have  kept 
the  place."  This  evidence  from  his  own  colleague  and  friend 
is  conclusive,  and  will  be  a  nice  morsel  for  the  future  biog- 
rapher of  Brougham. 

I  dined  at  Holland  House  yesterday  ;  a  good  many  people, 
and  the  Chancellor  came  in  after  dinner,  looking  like  an  old 
clothes-man  and  dirty  as  the  ground.  We  had  a  true  Holland 
House  dinner,  two  more  people  arriving  (Melbourne  and  Tom 
Buncombe)  than  there  was  room  for,  so  that  Lady  Holland 
had  the  pleasure  of  a  couple  of  general  squeezes,  and  of 
seeing  our  arms  prettily  pinioned.  Lord  Holland  sits  at 
table,  but  does  not  dine.  He  proposed  to  retire  (not  from  the 
room),  but  was  not  allowed,  for  that  would  have  given  us  all 
space  and  ease.  Lord  Holland  told  some  stories  of  Johnson 
and  Garrick  which  he  had  heard  from  Kemble.  Johnson 
loved  to  bully  Garrick,  from  a  recollection  of  Garrick's  former 
impertinence.  When  Garrick  was  in  the  zenith  of  his  popu- 
larity, and  grown  rich,  and  lived  with  the  great,  and  while 
Johnson  was  yet  obscure,  the  Doctor  used  to  drink  tea  with 
him,  and  he  would  say,  "Davy,  I  do  not  envy  you  your 
money  nor  your  fine  acquaintance,  but  I  envy  you  your 
power  of  drinking  such  tea  as  this."  "  Yes,"  said  Garrick,  "it- 
is  very  good  tea,  but  it  is  not  my  best,  nor  that  which  I  give 
to  my  Lord  this  and  Sir  somebody  t'other." 

Johnson  liked  Fox  because  he  had  defended  his  pension, 
and  said  it  was  only  to  blame  in  not  being  large  enough. 
"  Fox,"  he  said,  "  is  a  liberal  man  ;  he  would  always  be  '  aut 
Caesar  aut  nullus  ; '  whenever  I  have  seen  him  he  has  been 
nullus"  Lord  Holland  said  Fox  made  it  a  rule  never  to  talk 
in  Johnson's  presence,  because  he  knew  all  his  conversations 
were  recorded  for  publication,  and  he  did  not  choose  to  figure 
in  them. 

August  12£/i. — The  House  of  Commons  has  finished  (or 
nearly)  its  business.  Althorp  ended  with  a  blunder.  He 
brought  in  a  Bill  to  extend  the  time  for  payment  of  rates  and 
for  voters  under  the  new  Bill,  and  because  it  was  opposed  he 
abandoned  it  suddenly ;  his  friends  are  disgusted.  Robarts 
told  me  that  the  Bank  Committee  had  executed  their  laborious 


1S32.J  DINNER  AT   HOLLAND   HOUSE  115 

duties  in  a  spirit  of  great  cordiality,  and  with  a  general  dis- 
position to  lay  aside  all  political  differences  and  concur  in 
accomplishing  the  best  results ;  a  good  thing,  for  it  is  in  such 
transactions  as  these,  which  afford  an  opportunity  for  laying 
aside  the  bitterness  of  party  and  the  rancorous  feelings  which 
animate  men  against  each  other,  that  the  only  chance  can  be 
found  of  a  future  amalgamation  of  public  men.  He  told  me 
that  the  evidence  all  went  to  prove  that  little  improvement 
could  be  made  in  the  management  of  the  Bank. 

Dined  yesterday  at  Holland  House ;  the  Chancellor,  Lord 
Grey,  Luttrell,  Palmerston,  and  Macaulay.  The  Chancellor 
was  sleepy  and  would  not  talk;  he  uttered  nothing  but  yawns 
and  grunts.  Macaulay  and  Allen  disputed  history,  partic- 
ularly the  character  of  the  Emperor  Frederick  II.,  and  Allen 
declared  himself  a  Guelph  and  Macaulay  a  Ghibelline.  Ma- 
caulay is  a  most  extraordinary  man,  and  his  astonishing  knowl- 
edge is  every  moment  exhibited,  but  (as  far  as  I  have  yet 
seen  of  him,  which  is  not  sufficient  to  judge)  he  is  not  agree- 
able. His  propositions  and  his  allusions  are  rather  too  abrupt ; 
he  starts  topics  not  altogether  naturally;  then  he  has  none 
of  the  graces  of  conversation,  none  of  that  exquisite  tact  and 
refinement  which  are  the  result  of  a  felicitous  intuition  or  a 
long  acquaintance  with  good  society,  or  more  probably  a 
mixture  of  both.  The  mighty  mass  of  his  knowledge  is  not 
animated  by  that  subtile  spirit  of  taste  and  discretion  which 
alone  can  give  it  the  qualities  of  lightness  and  elasticity,  and 
without  which,  though  he  may  have  the  power  of  instructing 
and  astonishing,  he  never  will  attain  that  of  delighting  and 
captivating  his  hearers.  The  dinner  was  agreeable,  and  en- 
livened by  a  squabble  between  Lady  Holland  and  Allen,  at 
which  we  were  all  ready  to  die  of  laughing.  He  jeered  at 
something  she  said  as  brutal,  and  chuckled  at  his  own  wit. 

Shepperton,  August  31st. — I  came  here  last  Sunday  to 
see  my  father,  who  (my  mother  wrote  me  word)  had  been 
unwell  for  a  day  or  two.  I  got  here  at  four  o'clock  (having 
called  on  Madame  de  Lieven  at  Richmond  on  the  way), 
and  when  I  arrived  I  found  my  father  at  the  point  of 
death.  He  was  attacked  as  he  had  often  been  before ;  medi- 
cines afforded  him  no  relief,  and  nothing  would  stay  on  his 
stomach.  On  Saturday  violent  spasms  came  on,  which 
occasioned  him  dreadful  pain ;  they  continued  intermittingly 
till  Sunday  afternoon,  when  as  they  took  him  out  of  bed  to 
put  him  in  a  warm  bath,  he  fainted.  From  this  state  oi  in- 


114  R:-:IGN.  OF  WILLIAM  iv.  [CHAP.  xvm. 

sensibility  he  never  recovered,  and  at  half-past  twelve  o'clock 
he  expired.  My  brothers  were  both  here.  I  sent  an  express 
for  my  sister,  who  was  at  Malvern,  and  she  arrived  on  Tues- 
day morning.  Dr.  Dowdswell  was  in  the  house,  and  he 
staid  on  with  us  and  did  all  that  was  required.  This  morn- 
ing he  was  burried  in  the  church  of  this  village,  close  to  the 
house  in  the  simplest  manner,  and  was  followed  to  the  grave 
by  my  brothers  and  brother-in-law,  Dowdswell,  Ives,  the 
doctor  who  attended  him,  and  the  servants.  He  had  long  been 
ailing,  and  at  his  age  (nearly  seventy  years)  this  event  was 
not  extraordinary,  but  it  was  shocking,  because  so  sudden 
and  unexpected,  and  no  idea  of  danger  was  entertained  by 
himself  or  those  about  him.  My  father  had  some  faults  and 
many  foibles,  but  he  was  exposed  to  great  disadvantages  in 
early  youth  ;  his  education  was  neglected  and  his  disposition 
was  spoilt.  His  father  was  useless,  and  worse  than  useless, 
as  a  parent,  and  his  mother  (a  woman  of  extraordinary 
capacity  and  merit)  died  while  he  was  a  young  man,  having 
been  previously  separated  from  her  husband,  and  having 
retired  from  the  world.1  The  circumstances  of  his  marriage, 
and  the  incidents  of  his  life,  would  be  interesting  to  none  but 
his  own  family,  and  need  not  be  recorded  by  me.  He  was  a 
man  of  a  kind,  amiable,  and  liberal  disposition,  and  what  is 
remarkable,  as  he  advanced  in  years  his  temper  grew  less  irri- 
table and  more  indulgent;  he  was  cheerful,  hospital >le,  and 
unselfish.  He  had  at  all  times  been  a  lively  companion,  and 
without  much  instruction,  extensive  information,  or  a  vigor- 
ous understanding,  his  knowledge  of  the  world  in  the  midst 
of  which  he  had  passed  his  life,  his  taste  and  turn  for  humor, 
and  his  good-nature,  made  him  a  very  agreeable  man.  He 
had  a  few  intimate  friends  to  whom  he  was  warmly  attached, 
a  host  of  acquaintance,  and  I  do  not  know  that  he  had  a  single 
enemy.  He  was  an  affectionate  father,  and  ready  to  make 
any  sacrifices  for  the  happiness  and  welfare  of  his  children — 
in  short,  he  was  amiable  and  blameless  in  the  various  relations 
of  life,  and  he  deserved  that  his  memory  should  be  cherished 
as  it  is  by  us  with  sincere  and  affectionate  regret. 

September  18£A. — I  have  been  in  London,  at  Shepperton, 
and  twice  at  Brighton  to  see  Henry  de  Ros ;  came  back  yes- 

1  [Mr.  Charles  Greville,  senior,  was  the  fifth  son  of  Fulk  Grevillc  of  Wilbury, 
by  Frances  Macartney,  a  lady  of  some  literary  reputation  as  the  authoress  of  an 
"  Ode  to  Indifference."  She  was  the  daughter  of  General  Macartney.  Horace 
Walpole  speaks  of  her  as  one  of  the  beauties  of  his  time.  She  died  in  1789. 
Mr.  Greville  may  have  inherited  from  her  his  strong  literary  tastes.] 


1832.]  LADY   KEITH.  115 

terday.  The  \vorld  is  half  asleep.  Lord  Howe  returns  to  the 
Queen  as  her  Chamberlain,  and  that  makes  a  sensation.  I 
met  at  Brighton  Lady  Keith  [Madame  de  Flahaut],  who  told 
us  a  great  deal  about  French  politics,  which  as  she  is  a  parti- 
san, was  not  worth  much,  but  she  also  gave  us  rather  an 
amusing  account  of  the  early  days  of  the  Princess  Charlotte, 
at  the  time  of  her  escape  from  Warwick  House  in  a  hackney- 
coach  and  taking  refuge  with  her  mother,  and  of  the  earlier 
affair  of  Captain  Hess.  The  former  escapade  arose  from  her 
determination  to  break  off  her  marriage  with  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  and  that  from  her  falling  suddenly  in  love  with  Prince 
Augustus  of  Prussia,  and  her  resolving  to  marry  him  and 
nobody  else,  not  knowing  that  he  was  already  married  de  la 
main  gauche  in  Prussia.  It  seems  that  she  speedily  made 
known  her  sentiments  to  the  Prince,  and  he  (notwithstanding 
his  marriage)  followed  the  thing  up,  and  had  two  interviews 
with  her  at  her  own  house,  which  were  contrived  by  Miss 
Knight,  her  governess.  During  one  of  these  Miss  Mercer 
arrived,  and  Miss  Knight  told  her  that  Prince  Augustus  was 
with  the  Princess  in  her  room,  and  what  a  fright  she  (Miss 
Knight)  was  in.  Miss  Mercer,  who  evidently  had  no  mind 
anybody  should  conduct  such  an  affair  for  the  Princess  but 
herself,  pressed  Miss  Knight  to  go  and  interrupt  them,  which 
on  her  declining'  she  did  herself.  The  King  (Regent  as  he 
was  then)  somehow  heard  of  these  meetings,  and  measures  of 
coercion  were  threatened,  and  it  was  just  when  an  approach- 
ing visit  from  him  had  been  announced  to  the  Princess  that 
she  went  off.  Miss  Mercer  was  in  the  house  at  the  time,  and 
the  Regent,  when  he  came,  found  her  there.  He  accused  her 
of  being  a  party  to  the  Princess's  flight,  but  afterward  either 
did  or  pretended  to  believe  her  denial,  and  sent  her  to  fetch 
the  Princess  back,  which  after  many  pourparlers  and  the  in- 
tervention of  the  Dukes  of  York  and  Sussex,  Brougham,  and 
the  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  her  preceptor,  was  accomplished  at 
two  in  the  morning. 

Hess's  affair  was  an  atrocity  of  the  Princess  of  Wales. 
She  employed  him  to  convey  letters  to  her  daughter  while 
she  used  to  ride  in  Windsor  Park,  which  he  contrived  to 
deliver,  and  occasionally  to  converse  Avith  her;  and  on  one 
occasion,  at  Kensington,  the  Princess  of  Wales  brought  them 
together  in  her  own  room.  The  Princess  afterward  wrote 
him  some  letters,  not  containing  much  harm,  but  idle  and 
improper.  When  the  Duke  of  York's  affair  with  Mrs.  Clark 


116  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

came  out,  and  all  the  correspondence,  she  became  very  much 
alarmed,  told  Miss  Mercer  the  whole  story,  and  employed  her 
to  get  back  her  letters  to  Hess.  She  accordingly  wrote  to 
Hess  (who  was  then  in  Spain),  but  he  evinced  a  disinclina- 
tion to  give  them  up.  On  his  return  to  England  she  saw 
him,  and  on  his  still  demurring  she  threatened  to  put  the 
affair  into  the  Duke  of  York's  hands,  which  frightened  him, 
and  then  he  surrendered  them,  and  signed  a  paper  declaring 
he  had  given  up  every  thing.  The  King  afterward  heard  of 
this  affair,  and  questioning  the  Princess,  she  told  him  every 
thing.  He  sent  for  Miss  Mercer,  and  desired  to  see  the  let- 
ters, and  then  to  keep  them.  This  she  refused.  This  Captain 
Hess  was  a  short,  plurnp,  vulgar-looking  man,  afterward  lover 
to  the  Queen  of  Naples,  mother  of  the  present  King,  an 
amour  that  was  carried  on  under  the  auspices  of  the  Margra- 
vine at  her  villa  in  the  Strada  Nova  at  Naples.  It  was,  how- 
ever, detected,  and  Hess  was  sent  away  from  Naples,  and 
never  allowed  to  return.  I  remember  finding  him  at  Turin 
(married),  when  he  was  lamenting  his  hard  fate  in  being  ex- 
cluded from  that  Paradiso  Naples. 

September  28th. — At  Stoke  from  the  22d  to  the  26th,  then 
to  the  Grove,  and  returned  yesterday ;  at  the  former  place 
Madame  de  Lieven,  Alvanley,  Melbourne  ;  tolerably  pleasant ; 
question  of  war  again.  The  Dutch  King  makes  a  stir,  and 
threatens  to  bombard  the  town  of  Antwerp ;  the  French  of- 
fered to  march,  and  put  their  troops  in  motion,  but  Leopold 
begged  they  would  not,  and  chose  rather  to  await  the  effect 
of  more  conferences,  which  began  with  great  vigor  a  few  days 
r.go.  What  they  find  to  say  to  each  other  for  eight  or  ten 
hours  a  day  for  several  consecutive  days  it  is  hard  to  guess,  as 
the  question  is  of  the  simplest  kind.  The  King  of  Holland 
will  not  give  up  the  citadel  of  Antwerp,  nor  consent  to  the 
free  navigation  of  the  Scheldt ;  the  Belgians  insist  on  these 
concessions ;  the  Conference  says  they  shall  be  granted,  but 
Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria,  will  not  coerce  the  Dutchman  ; 
England  and  France  will,  if  the  others  don't  object.  A 
French  army  is  in  motion,  and  a  French  fleet  is  off  Spithead ; 
so  probably  something  will  come  of  it.  Nothing  has  damaged 
this  Government  more  than  these  protracted  and  abortive  con- 
ferences. 

Four  days  ago  there  was  a  report  that  the  King  of  Spain 
was  dead,  accompanied  with  a  good  many  particulars,  and  all 
the  world  began  speculating  as  to  the  succession,  but  yester- 


1832.]  THE   FRENCH  GOVERNMENT.  117 

day  came  news  that  he  was  not  dead,  but  better.  Pedro  and 
Miguel  are  fighting  at  Oporto  with  some  appearance  of  spirit ; 
Miguel  is  the  favorite.  The  French  Government  is  represent- 
ed to  be  in  a  wretched  state,  squabbling  and  feeble,  and  no- 
body is  inclined  to  be  Minister.  Dupin  was  very  near  it,  but 
refused  because  Louis  Philippe  would  not  make  him  President 
of  the  Council.  The  King  is  determined  to  be  his  own  Minis- 
ter, and  can  get  nobody  to  take  office  on  these  terms.  They 
think  it  will  end  in  Dupin.  The  present  Government  declares 
it  cannot  meet  the  Chambers  until  Antwerp  is  evacuated  by 
the  Dutch  and  the  Duchesse  de  Berri  departed  out  of  France 
or  taken.  This  heroine,  much  to  the  annoyance  of  her  family, 
is  dodging  about  in  La  Vendee  and  doing  rather  harm  than 
good  to  her  cause.  The  Dauphiness  passed  through  London, 
when  our  Queen  very  politely  went  to  visit  her.  She  has  not 
a  shadow  of  doubt  of  the  restoration  of  her  nephew,  and 
thinks  nothing  questionable  but  the  time.  She  told  Madame 
de  Lieven  this.  I  talked  to  Madame  de  Lieven  about  war, 
and  added  that  if  any  did  break  out  it  would  be  the  war  of 
opinion  which  Canning  had  predicted.  She  said  yes,  and  that 
the  monarchical  principle  (as  she  calls  the  absolute  principle) 
would  then  crush  the  other. 

I  came  up  with  Melbourne  to  London.  He  is  uneasy 
about  the  state  of  the  country — about  the  desire  for  change 
and  the  general  restlessness  that  prevails.  We  discussed  the 
different  members  of  the  Government,  and  he  agreed  that 
John  Russell  had  acted  unwarrantably  in  making  the  speech 
he  did  the  other  day  at  Torquay  about  the  Ballot,  which, 
though  hypothetical,  was  nothing  but  an  invitation  to 
the  advocates  of  Ballot  to  agitate  for  it;  this,  too,  from  a 
Cabinet  Minister  !  Then  comes  an  awkward  sort  of  explana- 
tion, that  what  he  said  was  in  his  individual  capacity,  as  if 
lie  had  any  right  so  to  speak.  Melbourne  spoke  of  Brougham, 
who  he  said  was  tossed  about  in  perpetual  caprices,  that  he 
was  fanciful  and  sensitive,  and  actuated  by  all  sorts  of  little- 
nesses, even  with  regard  to  people  so  insignificant  that  it  is 
difficult  to  conceive  how  he  can  ever  think  about  them  ;  that 
he  is  conservative,  but  under  the  influence  of  his  old  con- 
nections, particularly  of  the  Saints.  His  friends  are  so  often 
changed  that  it  is  not  easy  to  follow  him  in  this  respect. 

Durham  used  to  be  one  ;  now  he  hates  him ;  he  has  a  high 
opinion  of  Sefton  !  of  his  judgment !  !  What  is  talent,  what 
are  great  abilities,  'when  one  sees  the  gigantic  intellect  of 


118  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XVIK. 

Brougham  so  at  fault  ?  Not  only  does  the  world  manage  to 
go  on  when  little  wisdom  guides  it,  but  how  ill  it  may  go  on 
with  a  great  deal  of  talent,  which,  however,  is  different  from 
wisdom.  He  asked  me  what  I  thought  of  Richmond,  and  I 
told  him  that  he  was  ignorant  and  narrow-minded,  but  a  good 
sort  of  fellow,  only  appearing  to  me,  who  had  known  him  all 
my  life,  in  an  odd  place  as  a  Cabinet  Minister.  He  said  he 
was  sharp,  quick,  the  King  liked  him,  and  he  stood  up  to 
Durham  more  than  any  other  man  in  the  Cabinet,  and  that  al- 
together he  was  not  unimportant ;  so  that  the  ingredients  of 
this.Cabinet  seem  to  be  put  there  to  neutralize  one  another, 
and  to  be  good  for  nothing  else ;  because  Durham  has  an 
overbearing  temper,  and  his  father-in-law  is  weak,  there  must 
be  a  man  without  any  other  merit  than  spirit  to  curb  that 
temper.  He  talked  of  Ireland,  and  the  difficulty  of  settling 
the  question  there,  that  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was 
willing  to  reform  the  Church,  but  not  alienate  any  of  its  rev- 
enues. "Not,"  I  asked,  "for  the  payment  of  a  Catholic 
clergy  ?  "  "  No,  not  from  Protestant  uses."  I  told  him  there 
was  nothing  to  be  done  but  to  pull  down  the  edifice  and  re- 
build it.  He  said  you  would  have  all  the  Protestants  against 
you,  but  he  did  not  appear  to  differ.  To  this  things  must 
come  at  last.  Melbourne  is  exceedingly  anxious  to  keep  Lord 
Hill  and  Fitzroy  Somerset  at  the  head  of  the  army,  from 
which  the  violent  of  his  party  would  gladly  oust  them,  but  he 
evidently  contemplates  the  possibility  of  having  occasion  for 
the  army,  and  does  not  wish  to  tamper  with  the  service  or 
play  any  tricks  with  it.  It  is  curious  to  see  the  working  and 
counter-working  of  his  real  opinions  and  principles  with  his 
false  position,  and  the  mixture  of  bluntness,  facility  and 
shrewdness,  discretion,  levity  and  seriousness,  which,  color- 
ing his  mind  and  character  by  turns,  make  up  the  strange 
compound  of  his  thoughts  and  his  actions. 


1832.1  FOREIGN   DIFFICULTIES.  119 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

Foreign  Difficulties— Conduct  of  Peel  on  the  Resignation  of  Lord  Grev— Manners  Button 
proposed  as  Tory  Premier — Coolness  between  Peel  and  the  Duke— "Embargo  on  Dutch 
Ships — Death  of  Lord  Tenterden— Denman  made  Lord  Chief-Justice — Sketch  of  Hol- 
land House — The  Speakerehip — Home  and  Campbell  Attorney-  and  Solicitor-General — 
The  Court  at  Brighton — Lord  Howe  and  the  Queen — Elections  under  the  Reform  Act 
— Mr.  Gully— Petworth — Lord  Egremont — Attempt  to  reinstate  Lord  Howe — Namik 
Pasha — Lord  Lyndhurst's  Version  of  what  occurred  on  the  Resignation  of  Lord  Grey 
— Lord  Denbigh  appointed  Chamberlain  to  the  Queen — Brougham's  Privy  Council 
Bill — Talleyrand's  Relations  with  Fox  and  Pitt — Negro  Emancipation  Bill — State  of  the 
West  Indies — The  Reformed  Parliament  meets — Russian  Intrigues — Four  Days'  Debate 
on  the  Address — Peel's  Political  Career. 

London,  October  yth. — I  went  to  Newmarket  on  the  30th 
of  September,  to  Panshanger  on  the  5th,  and  came  to  town 
on  the  6th.  Great  fears  entertained  of  war ;  the  obstinacy 
of  the  Dutch  King,  the  appointment  of  Soult  to  be  Prime 
Minister  of  France,  and  the  ambiguous  conduct  of  the  Allied 
Courts,  look  like  war.  Miguel  has  attacked  Oporto  without 
success ;  but,  as  he  nearly  destroyed  the  English  and  French 
battalions,  he  will  probably  soon  get  possession  of  the  city. 
It  is  clear  that  all  Portugal  is  for  him,  which  we  may  be  sorry 
for,  but  so  it  is.  The  iniquity  of  his  cause  does  not  appear  to 
affect  it. 

October  12th. — Lady  Cowper  told  me  at  Panshanger  that 
Palmerston  said  all  the  difficulties  of  the  Belgian  question 
came  from  Matuscewitz,  who  was  insolent  and  obstinate,  and 
astute  in  making  objections ;  that  it  was  the  more  provoking 
as  he  had  been  recalled  some  time  ago  (the  Greek  business 
being  settled,  for  which  he  came),  and  Palmerston  and  some 
of  the  others  had  asked  the  Emperor  to  allow  him  to  stay  here, 
on  account  of  his  usefulness  in  drawing  up  the  minutes  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  Conference  ;  that  Lieven  had  by  no  means 
wished  him  to  stay,  but  could  not  object  when  the  others 
desired  it.  Accordingly  he  remained,  and  now  he  annoys 
Palmerston  to  death.  All  this  she  wrote  to  Madame  de 
Lieven,  who  replied  that  it  was  not  the  fault  of  Matuscewitz, 
and  that  he  and  Lieven  agreed  perfectly.  She  talked,  how- 
ever, rather  more  pacific  language.  This  clever,  intriguing, 
agreeable  diplomatess  has  renewed  her  friendship  with  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  to  which  he  does  not  object,  though  she 
will  hardly  ever  efface  the  impression  her  former  conduct  made 
upon  him.  My  journal  is  getting  intolerably  stupid,  and  en- 
tirely barren  of  events.  I  would  take  to  miscellaneous  and 


120  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [Cn.vn.  XIX. 

private  matters  if  any  fell  in  iriy  way,  but  what  can  I  make 
out  of  such  animals  as  I  herd  with  and  such  occupations  as  I 
am  engaged  in  ? 

Euston,  October  26th. — Went  to  Downham  on  Sunday 
last ;  the  Duke  of  Rutland,  the  Walewskis,  Lord  Burghersh, 
and  Hope.  Came  here  on  Wednesday  morning ;  the  usual 
party.  At  Downham  I  picked  up  a  good  deal  from  Arbuth- 
not  (who  was  very  garrulous)  of  a  miscellaneous  description, 
of  which  the  most  curious  and  important  was  the  entire  con- 
firmation of  (what  I  before  suspected)  the  ill-blood  that  exists 
between  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Peel ;  though  the  inter- 
ests of  party  keep  them  on  decent  terms,  they  dislike  one 
another,  and  the  Duke's  friends  detest  Peel  still  more  than  the 
Duke  does  himself.  He  told  me  all  that  had  passed  at  the 
time  of  the  blow-up  of  the  present  Government,  which  I  have 
partly  recorded  from  a  former  conversation  with  him, -and  his 
story  certainly  proves  that  the  Duke  (though  I  think  he  com- 
mitted an  enormous  error  in  judgment)  was  not  influenced  by 
any  motives  of  personal  ambition. 

As  soon  as  the  King  sent  for  Lyndhurst  the  latter  went  to 
the  Duke,  who  (as  is  known)  agreed  to  form  a  Government, 
never  doubting  that  he  was  to  be  himself  Prime  Minister. 
Lyndhurst  went  to  Peel,  who  declined  to  take  office,  and  he 
then  went  to  Baring.  Lyndhurst  and  Arbuthnot  sent  for  Bar- 
ing out  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  took  him  to  old  Bankes's 
house  in  Palace  Yard,  where  they  had  their  conversation  with 
him.  He  begged  for  time  to  consider  of  it,  and  to  be  allowed 
to  consult  Peel,  to  which  they  assented.  He  afterward  agreed, 
but  on  condition  that  Manners  Sutton  should  also  be  in  the 
Cabinet.  Lyndhurst  had  about  the  same  time  made  overtures 
to  Mannera  Sutton,  and,  though  nothing  was  finally  settled,  it 
was  understood  he  would  accept  them.  So  matters  stood, 
when  one  day  (it  must  have  been  the  Wednesday  or  Thurs- 
day) Vesey  Fitzgerald  called  on  the  Arbuthnots,  and  in  a  con- 
versation about  the  different  arrangements  he  intimated  that 
Manners  Sutton  expected  to  be  Prime  Minister,  and  on  asking 
him  more  particularly,  they  found  that  this  was  also  his  own 
impression.  The  next  morning  Arbuthnot  went  off  to  Lyncl- 
hurst's  house,  where  he  arrived  before  Lyndhurst  was  dressed, 
and  told  him  what  had  fallen  from  Fitzgerald,  and  asked 
what  it  could  mean.  Lyndhurst  answered  very  evasively,  but 
promised  to  have  the  matter  cleared  up.  Arbuthnot,  not  sat- 
isfied, went  to  the  Duke  and  told  him  what  had  passed,  and 


1832.]  THE  PREMIERSHIP.  121 

added  his  conviction  that  there  was  some  tuch  project  on  foot 
(to  make  Sutton  Premier)  of  which  he  was  not  aware.  The 
Duke  said  he  did  not  care  a  farthing  who  was  Premier,  and 
that  if  it  was  thought  desirable  that  Sutton  should  be  he  had 
not  the  smallest  objection,  and  was  by  no  means  anxious  to  fill 
the  post  himself.  I  asked  whether  the  Duke  would  have  taken 
office  if  Sutton  had  been  Minister,  and  was  told  that  nothing 
was  settled,  but  probably  not. 

The  same  day  there  was  a  meeting  at  Apsley  House,  at 
which  the  Duke,  Lyndhurst,  Baring,  Ellenborough,  and  (I 
think)  Rosslyn  or  Aberdeen,  or  both,  were  present,  and  to 
which  Sutton  catne,  and  held  forth  for  nearly  four  hours 
upon  the  position  of  their  affairs  and  his  coming  into  office. 
Ha  talked  such  incredible  nonsense  (as  I  have  before 
related)  that  when  he  was  gone  they  all  lifted  up  their 
hands  and  with  one  voice  pronounced  the  impossibility  of 
forming  any  Government  under  such  a  head.  Baring  was 
then  asked  why  he  had  made  Sutton's  coming  into  office 
the  condition  of  his  own  acceptance,  and  why  he  had  wished 
him  to  be  Prime  Minister.  He  said  that  he  had  never  desired 
any  such  thing  himself,  and  had  hardly  any  acquaintance  with 
Sutton,  except  that  as  Speaker  he  was  civil  to  him,  and  he 
dined  with  him  once  a  year,  but  that  when  he  had  gone  to 
consult  Peel,  Peel  had  advised  him  to  insist  upon  having  Sut- 
ton, and  to  put  him  at  the  head  of  the  Government.  This 
avowal  led  to  further  examination  into  what  had  passed,  and 
it  carne  out  that  when  Lyndhurst  went  to  Peel,  Peel  pressed 
Manners  Sutton  upon  him,  refusing  to  take  office  himself,  but 
promising  to  support  the  new  Government,  and  urging  Lynd- 
hurst to  offer  the  Premiership  to  Sutton.  At  the  same  time 
he  put  Sutton  up  to  this,  and  desired  him  to  refuse  every  office 
except  that  of  Premier.  Accordingly,  when  Lyndhurst  went 
to  Sutton,  the  latter  said  he  would  be  Prime  Minister  or  noth- 
ing, and  Lyndhurst  had  the  folly  to  promise  it  to  him.  Tims 
matters  stood  when  Lady  Cowley,  who  was  living  at  Apsley 
House,  and  got  hold  of  what  was  passing,  went  and  told  it  to 
her  brother,  Lord  Salisbury,  who  lost  no  time  in  imparting  it 
to  some  of  the  other  High  Tory  Lords,  who  all  agreed  that  it 
would  not  do  to  have  Sutton  at  the  head  of  the  Government, 
and  that  the  Duke  was  the  only  man  for  them.  On  Saturday 
the  great  dinner  at  the  Conservative  Club  took  place,  at  which 
a  number  of  Tories,  principally  Peers,  with  the  Duke  and  Peel, 
were  present.  A  great  many  speeches  were  made,  all  full  of 
28 


122  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XIX 

enthusiasm  for  the  Duke,  and  expressing  a  determination  ta 
support  his  Government.  Peel  was  in  very  ill-humor  and  said 
little ;  the  Duke  spoke  much  in  honor  of  Peel,  applauding  his 
conduct  and  saying  that  the  difference  of  their  positions  justi- 
fied each  in  his  different  line.  The  next  day  some  of  the 
Duke's  friends  met,  and  agreed  that  the  unanimous  desire  for 
the  Duke's  being  at  the  head  of  the  Government  which  had 
been  expressed  at  that  dinner,  together  with  the  unfitness  of 
Sutton,  proved  the  absolute  necessity  of  the  Duke's  being 
Premier,  and  it  was  resolved  that  a  communication  to  this 
effect  should  be  made  to  Peel.  Aberdeen  charged  himself 
with  it  and  went  to  Peel's  house,  where  Sutton  was  at  the 
time.  Peel  came  to  Aberdeen  in  a  very  bad  humor,  said  he 
saw  from  what  had  passed  at  the  dinner  that  nobody  was 
thought  of  but  the  Duke,  and  he  should  wash  his  hands  of 
the  whole  business  ;  that  he  had  already  declined  having  any 
thing  to  do  with  the  Government,  and  to  that  determination 
he  should  adhere.  The  following  Monday  the  whole  thing 
was  at  an  end. 

I  am  not  sure  that  I  have  stated  these  occurrences  exactly 
as  they  were  told  me.  There  may  be  errors  in  the  order  of 
the  interviews  and  pourparlers,  and  in  the  verbal  details,  but 
the  substance  is  correct,  and  may  be  summed  up  to  this  effect : 
that  Peel,  full  of  ambition,  but  of  caution,  animated  by  deep 
dislike  and  jealousy  of  the  Duke  (which  policy  induced  him  to 
conceal,  but  which  temper  betrayed),  thought  to  make  Man- 
ners Sutton  play  the  part  of  Addington,  while  he  was  to  be 
another  Pitt ;  he  fancied  that  he  could  gain  in  political  char- 
acter, by  an  opposite  line. of  conduct,  all  that  the  Duke  would 
lose  ;  and  he  resolved  that  a  Government  should  be  formed 
the  existence  of  which  should  depend  upon  himself.  Manners 
Sutton  was  to  be  his  creature  ;  he  would  have  dictated  every 
measure  of  Government ;  he  would  have  been  their  protector 
in  the  House  of  Commons  ;  and,  as  soon  as  the  fitting  moment 
arrived,  he  would  have  dissolved  this  miserable  Ministry  and 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  affairs.  All  these  deep-laid 
schemes,  and  constant  regard  of  self,  form  a  strong  contrast 
to  the  simplicity  and  heartiness  of  the  Duke's  conduct,  and 
make  the  two  men  appear  in  a  very  different  light  from  that 
in  which  they  did  at  first.  Peel  acted  right  from  bad  motives, 
the  Duke  wrong  from  good  ones.  The  Duke  put  himself  for- 
ward, and  encountered  all  the  obloquy  and  reproach  to  which 
he  knew  he  exposed  himself,  and  having  done  so,  cheerfully 


1832.]  THE   DUTCH   QUESTION.  123 

offered  to  resign  the  power  to  another.  Peel  endeavored  to 
seize  the  power,  but  to  shield  himself  from  responsibility  and 
danger.  It  is  a  melancholy  proof  of  the  dearth  of  talent  and 
the  great  capacity  of  the  man  that,  notwithstanding  the  de- 
tection of  his  practices  and  his  motives,  the  Tories  are  com- 
pelled still  to  keep  well  with  him  and  to  accept  him  for  their 
leader.  No  cordiality,  however,  can  exist  again  between  him 
and  the  Duke  and  his  friends,  and,  should  the  Whig  Govern- 
ment be  expelled,  the  animosity  and  disunion  engendered  by 
these  circumstances  will  make  it  extremely  difficult  to  form  a 
Tory  Administration.  [In  a  short  time  it  was  all  made  up — 
forgiven,  if  not  forgotten.] 

November  7th. — Came  to  town  on  Sunday.  The  answer 
of  the  Dutch  King  to  the  demand  of  England  and  France 
that  he  should  give  up  Antwerp  was  anxiously  expected. 
It  arrived  on  Monday  afternoon,  and  was  a  refusal.  Accord- 
ingly a  Council  met  yeterday,  at  which  an  order  was  made 
for  laying  an  embargo  on  Dutch  merchant-ships,  which  are 
to  be  sequestrated,  but  not  confiscated.  The  French  army 
marches  forthwith,  and  Palmerston  told  me  they  expected 
two  or  three  days  of  bombardment  would  suffice  for  the  cap- 
ture of  the  citadel,  after  which  the  French  would  retire  within 
their  own  frontier.  The  combined  fleets  will  remain  at  the 
Downs,  for  they  can  do  nothing  on  the  coast  of  Holland  at 
this  season  of  the  year.  There  is  a  good^deal  of  jealousy  and 
no  friendly  spirit  between  the  English  and  French  sailors ; 
and  the  Duke  of  Richmond  told  me  yesterday  that  the  Deal 
pilots  desired  nothing  so  much  as  to  get  the  French  ships  into 
a  scrape.  Great  excitement  prevails  about  this  Dutch  ques- 
tion, which  is  so  complicated  that  at  this  moment  I  do  not 
understand  its  merits.  Matuscewitz,  however,  who  is  opposed 
totis  viribus  to  the  policy  of  England  and  France,  told  me 
that  nobody  could  have  behayed  worse  than  the  King  of 
Holland  has  done,  shuffling  and  tricking  throughout;  but 
they  say  he  is  so  situated  at  home  that  he  could  not  give  way 
if  lie  would.  A  few  days  must  now  decide  the  question  of 
war  or  peace.  All  the  Ministers,  except  Brougham,  Lord 
Holland,  Grant,  and  Carlisle,  were  at  the  Council  yesterday 
— the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  for  a  prayer  (for  we  omit  no 
opportunity  of  offering  supplications  or  returning  thanks  to 
Heaven),  and  the  new  Lord  Chief-Justice  to  be  sworn 'a  Privy 
Councilor, 

Lord  Tenterden  died  on  Saturday  night,  and  no  time  was 


124  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

lost  in  appointing  Denman  as  his  successor.  Coming  as  he 
does  after  four  of  the  greatest  lawyers  who  ever  sat  upon  the 
Bench,  this  choice  will  not  escape  severe  censure ;  for  the 
reputation  of  Denman  as  a  lawyer  is  not  high,  and  he  has 
been  one  of  the  most  inefficient  Attorneys-General  who  ever 
filled  the  office.  It  has  been  a  constant  matter  of  complaint 
on  the  part  of  the  Government  and  their  friends  that  the  law 
officers  of  the  Crown  gave  them  no  assistance,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  got  them  into  scrapes.  Denman  is  an  honorable 
man,  and  has  been  a  consistent  politician ;  latterly,  of  course, 
a  Radical  of  considerable  vehemence,  if  not  of  violence.  The 
other  men,  who  were  mentioned  as  successors  to  Tenterden 
were  Lyndhurst,  Scarlett,  and  James  Parke.  The  latter  is 
the  best  of  the  puisne  judges,  and  might  have  been  selected 
if  all  political  considerations  and  political  connections  had 
been  disregarded.  Lyndhurst  will  be  overwhelmed  with  an- 
guish and  disappointment  at  finding  himself  forever  excluded 
from  the  great  object  of  his  ambition,  and  in  which  his  pro- 
fessional claims  are  so  immeasurably  superior  to  those  of  his 
successful  competitor;  nor  has  he  lost  it  by  any  sacrifice  of 
interest  to  honor,  but  merely  from  the  unfortunate  issue  of 
his  political  speculations.  When  he  was  made  Chief  Baron  a 
regular  compact  was  made,  a  secret  article,  that  he  should 
succeed  on  Tenterden's  death  to  the  Chief- Justiceship ;  which 
bargain  was  of  course  canceled  by  his  declaration  of  war  on 
the  Reform  question  and  his  consequent  breach  with  Lord 
Grey ;  though  by  far  the  fittest  man,  he  was  now  out  of  the 
question.  It  will  be  the  more  grating  as  he  has  just  evinced 
his  high  capabilities  by  pronouncing  in  the  Court  of  Ex- 
chequer one  of  the  ablest  judgments  (in  Small  vs.  Attwood) 
that  were  ever  delivered.  [It  was  afterward  reversed  by  the 
House  of  Lords.]  Scarlett,  who  had  been  a  Whig  for  forty 
years,  and  who  has  long  occupied  the  first  place  in  the  Court 
of  King's  Bench,  would  have  been  the  man  if  his  political 
dissociation  from  his  old  connections,  and  his  recent  hostility 
to  them,  had  not  also  canceled  his  claims ;  so  that  every  rival 
being  set  aside  from  one  cause  or  another,  Denman,  by  one  of 
the  most  extraordinary  pieces  of  good  fortune  that  ever 
happened  to  man,  finds  himself  elevated  to  this  great  office, 
the  highest  object  of  a  lawyer's  ambition,  and,  in  my  opinion, 
one  of  the  most  enviable  stations  an  Englishman  can  attain. 
It  is  said  that  as  a  Common  Sergeant  he  displayed  the  quali- 
ties of  a  good  judge,  and  his  friends  confidently  assert  that  he 


1832.]  DEXMAN  LORD  CHIEF-JUSTICE.  125 

will  make  a  very  good  Chief-Justice ;  but  his  legal  qualifica- 
tions are  admitted  to  be  very  inferior  to  those  of  his  prede- 
cessors. [He  made  a  very  bad  one,  but  was  personally  popu- 
lar and  generally  respected  for  his  high  and  honorable  moral 
character.] 

Tenterden  was  a  remarkable  man,  and  his  elevation  did 
great  credit  to  the  judgment  which  selected  him,  and  which 
probably  was  Eldon's.  He  had  never  led  a  cause,  but  he  was 
a  profound  lawyer,  and  appears  to  have  had  a  mind  fraught 
with  the  spirit  and  genius  of  the  law,  and  not  narrowed  and 
trammeled  by  its  subtleties  and  technicalities.  In  spite  of  his 
low  birth,  want  of  oratorical  power,  and  of  personal  dignity, 
he  was  greatly  revered  and  dreaded  on  the  Bench.  He  was 
an  austere,  but  not  an  ill-humored  judge ;  his  manner  was 
remarkably  plain  and  unpolished,  though  not  vulgar.  He  was 
an  elegant  scholar,  and  cultivated  classical  literature  to  the 
last.  Brougham,  whose  congenial  tastes  delighted  in  his 
classical  attainments,  used  to  bandy  Latin  and  Greek  with  him 
from  the  Bar  to  the  Bench ;  and  he  has  more  than  once  told 
me  of  his  sending  Tenterden  Greek  verses  of  John  Williams's, 
of  which  the  next  day  Tenterden  gave  him  a  translation  in 
Latin  verse.  He  is  supposed  to  have  died  very  rich.  Denman 
was  taken  into  the  King's  closet  before  the  Council,  when  he 
was  sworn  in;  the  King  took  no  particular  notice  of  him,  and 
the  appointment  is  not,  probably,  very  palatable  to  his  Majesty. 

November  15th. — Sheriff  business  at  the  Exchequer  Court 
on  Monday ;  saw  Lyndhurst  and  Denman  meet  and  shake 
hands  with  much  politeness  and  grimace. 

November  2Qth. — Dined  at  Holland  House  the  day  before 
yesterday ;  Lady  Holland  is  unwell,  fancies  she  must  dine  at 
five  o'clock,  and  exerts  her  power  over  society  by  making 
everybody  go  out  there  at  that  hour,  though  nothing  can  be 
more  inconvenient  than  thus  shortening  the  day,  and  nothing 
more  tiresome  than  such  lengthening  of  the  evening.  Rogers 
and  Luttrell  were  staying  there.  The  tableau  of  the  house  is 
this :  Before  dinner,  Lady  Holland  affecting  illness  and  almost 
dissolution,  but  with  a  very  respectable  appetite,  and  after 
dinner  in  high  force  and  vigor;  Lord  Holland,  with  Iris  chalk- 
stones  and  unable  to  walk,  lying  on  his  couch  in  very  good 
spirits  and  talking  away ;  Luttrell  and  Rogers  walking  about, 
ever  and  anon  looking  despairingly  at  the  clock,  and  making 
short  excursions  from  the  drawing-room ;  Allen  surly  and  dis- 
putatious, poring  over  the  newspapers,  and  replying  in  mono- 


126  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

syllables  (generally  negative)  to  whatever  is  said  to  him.  The 
grand  topic  of  interest,  far  exceeding  the  Belgian  or  Portu- 
guese questions,  was  the  illness  of  Lady  Holland's  page,  who 
has  got  a  tumor  in  his  thigh.  This  "  little  creature,"  as  Lady 
Holland  calls  a  great  hulking  fellow  of  about  twenty,  is  called 
"  Edgar,"  his  real  name  being  Tom  or  Jack,  which  he  changed 
on  being  elevated  to  his  present  dignity,  as  the  Popes  do 
when  they  are  elected  to  the  tiara.  More  rout  is  made  about 
him  than  other  people  are  permitted  to  make  about  their  chil- 
dren, and  the  inmates  of  Holland  House  are  invited  and  com- 
pelled to  go  and  sit  with  and  amuse  him.  Such  is  the  social 
despotism  of  this  strange  house,  which  presents  an  odd  mixture 
of  luxury  and  constraint,  of  enjoyment  physical  and  intellectual, 
with  an  alloy  of  small  desagrements.  Talleyrand  generally 
comes  at  ten  or  eleven  o'clock,  and  stays  as  long  as  they  will 
let  him.  Though  everybody  who  goes  there  finds  something 
to  abuse  or  to  ridicule  in  the  mistress  of  the  house,  or  its 
ways,  all  continue  to  go ;  all  like  it  more  or  less ;  and  when- 
ever, by  the  death  of  either,  it  shall  come  to  an  end,  a  vacuum 
will  be  made  in  society  which  nothing  will  supply.  It  is  the 
house  of  all  Europe ;  the  world  will  suffer  by  the  loss ;  and 
it  may  with  truth  be  said  that  it  will  "  eclipse  the  gayety  of 
nations." 

November  27th. — At  Roehampton  from  Saturday  till  Mon- 
day. The  Chancellor  had  been  there  a  few  days  before,  from 
whom  Lord  Dover  had  picked  up  the  gossip  of  the  Govern- 
ment. There  had  been  a  fresh  breeze  with  Durham,  who  it 
seems  has  returned  from  Russia  more  odious  than  ever.  His 
violence  and  insolence,  as  usual,  were  vented  on  Lord  Grey, 
and  the  rest  of  the  Cabinet,  as  heretofore,  are  obliged  to  sub- 
mit. I  have  since  heard  from  the  Duke  of  Richmond  that  the 
cause  of  this  last  storm  was  something  relating  to  Church  Re- 
form, and  that  he  had  been  forced  to  knock  under.  I  fancy 
he  wanted  to  go  much  further  than  the  others,  probably  to 
unfrock  the  Bishop  of  Durham  and  Bishop  Phillpotts,  the 
former  because  he  is  a  greater  man  in  the  county  than  him- 
self, and  the  latter  from  old  and  inextinguishable  hatred  and 
animosity. 

There  has  been  another  dispute  about  the  Speakership. 
All  the  Cabinet  except  Althorp  want  to  put  Abercromby  in 
the  chair,  and  Althorp  insists  on  having  Littleton.  The  for- 
mer is  in  all  respects  the  best  choice,  and  the  man  whom  they 
ought,  from  his  long  connection  with  the  Whigs  and  his  con 


IW2.J  THE  SPEAKERSHIP.  127 

sistency  and  respectability,  to  propose,  but  Althorp  thought 
fit  to  commit  himself  in  some  way  to  Littleton  who  has  no 
claims  to  be  compared  with  those  of  Abercromby  (having 
been  half  his  life  in  opposition  to  the  present  Government), 
and  he  obstinately  insists  upon  the  expectations  held  out  to 
him  being  realized.  Lord  Grey,  though  very  anxious  for 
Abercromby,  thinks  it  necessary  to  defer  to  the  leader  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  the  consequence  is  a  very  disagree- 
able dispute  on  the  subject.  Abercromby  is  greatly  mortified 
at  being  postponed  to  Littleton,  and  not  the  less  as  Althorp 
has  always  been  his  friend.  The  language  of  Dover,  who  is 
a  sort  of  jackal  to  Brougham,  clearly  indicates  the  desire  of 
that  worthy  to  get  rid  of  Lord  Grey  and  put  himself  in  his 
place.  All  these  little  squabbles  elicit  some  disparaging  re- 
marks on  Lord  Grey's  weakness,  folly,  or  cupidity,  ffceret 
lateri — the  offer  of  the  Attorney-Generalship,  and  the  day  of 
vengeance  is  intended  to  come.1 

After  considerable  delay  Home  and  Campbell  were  ap- 
pointed Attorney- and  Solicitor-General;  the  delay  was  oc- 
casioned by  ineffectual  attempts  to  dispose  of  Home  else- 
Avhere.  They  wanted  to  get  some  puisne  judge  to  resign,  and 
to  put  Home  on  the  Bench,  but  they  could  not  make  any  such 
arrangement,  so  Home  is  Attorney.  Pepyswas  to  have  been 
Solicitor  if  the  thing  could  have  been  managed.  I  don't 
think  I  picked  up  any  thing  else,  except  that  the  King  was 
very  averse  to  the  French  attack  upon  Antwerp,  and  consent- 
ed to  the  hand-in-hand  arrangement  between  France  and 
England  with  considerable  reluctance.  The  fact  is  he  hates 
this  Government  so  much  that  he  dislikes  all  they  do. 

Lord  Lansdowne  is  just  come  from  Paris,  and  gives  a 
flourishing  account  of  the  prospects  of  King  Louis  Philippe 
and  his  Government,  but  as  he  is  the  Due  de  Broglie's  in- 
timate friend  his  opinion  may  be  prejudiced.  The  King  ap- 
pears certainly  to  have  rather  gained  than  not  by  the  attack 
which  was  made  on  him,  from  the  coolness  and  courage  he 
evinced,  and  it  is  a  great  point  to  have  proved  that  he  is  not 
a  coward. 

jBriffftion,  December  14^A. — Came  here  last  Wednesday 
week ;  Council  on  the  Monday  for  the  dissolution  ;  place  very 
full,  bustling,  gay,  and  amusing.  I  am  staying  in  De  Ros's 
house  with  Alvanley  ;  Chesterfields,  Howes,  Lievens,  Cow- 

1  [This  refers  to  Lord  Grey's  having  offered  the  Attorney-Generalship  to 
Brougham  when  Government  was  formed.] 


128  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XIX 

pers,  all  at  Brighton,  and  plenty  of  occupation  in  visiting1, 
gossiping,  dawdling,  riding,  and  driving ;  a  very  idle  life,  and 
impossible  to  do  any  thing.  The  Court  very  active,  vulgar, 
and  hospitable ;  King,  Queen,  Princes,  Princesses,  bastards, 
and  attendants  constantly  trotting  about  in  every  direction : 
the  election  noisy  and  dull — the  Court  candidate  beaten  and 
two  Radicals  elected.  Everybody  talking  of  the  siege  of 
Antwerp  and  the  elections.  So,  with  plenty  of  animation, 
and  discussion,  and  curiosity,  I  like  it  very  well.  Lord  Howe 
is  devoted  to  the  Queen,  and  never  away  from  her.  She  re- 
ceives his  attentions,  but  demonstrates  nothing  in  return ;  he 
is  like  a  boy  in  love  with  this  frightful  spotted  Majesty,  while 
his  delightful  wife  is  laid  up  (with  a  sprained  ankle  and  dis- 
located joint)  on  her  couch. 

Brighton,  December  ~L7t7i. — On  Sunday  I  heard  Anderson 
preach.  He  does  not  write  his  sermons,  but  preaches  from 
notes ;  very  eloquent,  voice  and  manner  perfect,  one  of  the 
best  I  ever  heard,  both  preacher  and  reader. 

The  borough  elections  are  nearly  over,  and  have  satisfied 
the  Government.  They  do  not  seem  to  be  bad  on  the  whole; 
the  metropolitans  have  sent  good  men  enough,  and  there  was 
no  tumult  in  the  town.  At  Hereford  Duncombe  was  routed 
by  Salisbury's  long  purse.  He  hired  such  a  numerous  mob 
besides  that  he  carried  all  before  him.  Some  very  bad  char- 
acters have  been  returned ;  among  the  worst,  Faithful  here ; 
Gronow  at  Stafford ;  Gully,  Pontrefact ;  Cobbett,  Oldham ; 
though  I  am  glad  that  Cobbett  is  in  Parliament.  Gully's  his- 
tory is  extraordinary.  He  was  taken  out  of  prison  twenty-five 
or  thirty  years  ago  by  Mellish  to  fight  Pierce,  surnamed  the 
"  Game  Chicken,"  being  then  a  butcher's  apprentice ;  he 
fought  him  and  was  beaten.  He  afterward  fought  Belcher 
(I  believe),  and  Gresson  twice,  and  left  the  prize-ring  with 
the  reputation  of  being  the  best  man  in  it.  He  then  took  to 
the  turf,  was  successful,  established  himself  at  Newmarket, 
where  he  kept  a  hell,  and  began  a  system  of  corruption  of 
trainers,  jockeys,  and  boys,  which  put  the  secrets  of  all  New- 
market at  his  disposal,  and  in  a  few  years  made  him  rich.  At 
the  same  time  he  connected  himself  with  Mr.  Watt  in  the 
north,  by  betting  for  him,  and  this  being  at  the  time  when 
Watt's  stable  was  very  successful,  he  won  large  sums  of  money 
by  horses.  Having  become  rich  he  embarked  in  a  great  coal 
speculation,  which  answered  beyond  his  hopes,  and  his  shares 
soon  yielded  immense  profits.  His  wife,  who  was  a  coarse, 


1832  J  JOHN  GULLY,  ESQ.  129 

vulgar  woman,  in  the  mean  time  died,  and  he  afterward  mar- 
ried the  daughter  of  an  innkeeper,  who  proved  as  gentlewoman- 
like  as  the  other  had  been  the  reverse,  and  who  is  very  pretty 
besides.  He  now  gradually  withdrew  from  the  betting-ring 
as  a  regular  blackleg,  still  keeping  horses,  and  betting  occa- 
sionally in  large  sums,  and  about  a  year  or  two  ago,  having 
previously  sold  the  Hare  Park  to  Sir  Mark  Wood,  where  he 
lived  for  two  or  three  years,  he  bought  a  property  near  Ponte- 
fract,  and  settled  down  (at  Ackworth  Park)  as  John  Gully, 
Esq.,  a  gentleman  of  fortune.  At  the  Reform  dissolution  he 
was  pressed  to  come  forward  as  candidate  for  Pontefract,  but 
after  some  hesitation  he  declined.  Latterly  he  has  taken  great 
interest  in  politics,  and  has  been  an  ardent  Reformer  and  a 
liberal  subscriber  for  the  advancement  of  the  cause.  When 
Parliament  was  about  to  be  dissolved,  he  was  again  invited  to 
stand  for  Pontefract  by  -a  numerous  deputation  ;  he  again  hes- 
itated, but  finally  accepted ;  Lord  Mexborough  withdrew,  and 
he  was  elected  without  opposition.  In  person  he  is  tall  and 
finely  formed,  full  of  strength  and  grace,  with  delicate  hands 
and  feet,  his  face  coarse  and  with  a  bad  expression,  his  head 
set  well  on  his  shoulders,  and  remarkably  graceful  and  even 
dignified  in  his  actions  and  manners;  totally  without  educa- 
tion, he  has  strong  sense,  discretion,  reserve,  and  a  species  of 
good  taste  which  has  prevented,  in  the  height  of  his  fortunes, 
his  behavior  from  ever  transgressing  the  bounds  of  modesty 
and  respect,  and  he  has  gradually  separated  himself  from  the 
rabble  of  betters  and  blackguards  of  whom  he  was  once  the 
most  conspicuous,  and  tacitly  asserted  his  own  independence 
and  acquired  gentility  without  ever  presuming  toward  those 
whom  he  has  been  accustomed  to  regard  with  deference.  His 
position  is  now  more  anomalous  than  ever,  for  a  member  of 
Parliament  is  a  great  man,  though  there  appear  no  reasons  why 
the  suffrages  of  the  blackguards  of  Pontefract  should  place 
him  in  different  social  relations  toward  us  than  those  in 
which  we  mutually  stood  before. 

Petworth,  December  20th. — Came  here  yesterday.  It  is  a 
very  grand  place ;  house  magnificent  and  full  of  fine  objects, 
both  ancient  and  modern ;  the  Sir  Joshuas  and  Vandycks 
particularly  interesting,  and  a  great  deal  of  all  sorts  that  is 
\vorth  seeing.  Lord  Egremont  was  eighty-one  the  day  before 
yesterday,  and  is  still  healthy,  with  faculties  and  memorv 
apparently  unimpaired.  He  has  reigned  here  for  sixty  years 
witli  groat  authority  and  influence.  He  is  shrewd,  eccentric, 


130  REIGN  OF   WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

and  benevolent,  and  has  always  been  munificent  and  chari- 
table in  his  own  way;  he  patronizes  the  arts  and  fosters 
rising  genius.  Painters  and  sculptors  find  employment  and 
welcome  in  his  house ;  he  has  built  a  gallery  which  is  full  of 
pictures  and  statues,  some  of  which  are  very  fine,  and  the 
pictures  scattered  through  the  house  are  interesting  and 
curious.  Lord  Egremont  hates  ceremony,  and  can't  bear  to 
be  personally  meddled  with ;  he  likes  people  to  come  and  go 
as  it  suits  them,  and  say  nothing  about  it,  never  to  take  leave 
of  him.  The  party  here  consists  of  the  Cowpers,  his  own 
family,  a  Lady  E.  Romney,  two  nieces,  Mrs.  Tredcroft  a  neigh- 
bor, Ridsdale  a  parson,  Wynne,  Turner,  the  great  landscape- 
painter,  and  a  young  artist  of  the  name  of  Lucas,  whom  Lord 
Egremont  is  bringing  into  notice,  and  who  will  owe  his  for- 
tune (if  he  makes  it)  to  him.  Lord  Egremont  is  enormously 
rich,  and  lives  with  an  abundant  though  not  very  refined  hos- 
pitality. The  house  wants  modern  comforts,  and  the  servants 
are  rustic  and  uncouth ;  but  every  thing  is  good,  and  it  all 
bears  an  air  of  solid  and  aristocratic  grandeur.  The  stud 
groom  told  me  there  are  three  hundred  horses  of  different 
sorts  here.  His  course,  however,  is  nearly  run,  and  he  has 
the  mortification  of  feeling  that,  though  surrounded  with  chil- 
dren and  grandchildren,  he  is  almost  the  last  of  his  race,  and 
that  his  family  is  about  to  be  extinct.  Two  old  brothers  and 
one  childless  nephew  are  all  that  are  left  of  the  Wyndhams, 
and  the  latter  has  been  many  years  married.  All  his  own 
children  are  illegitimate,  but  he  has  every  thing  in  his  power, 
though  nobody  has  any  notion  of  the  manner  in  which  he  will 
dispose  of  his  property.  It  is  impossible  not  to  reflect  upon 
the  prodigious  wealth  of  the  Earls  of  Northumberland,  and  of 
the  proud  Duke  of  Somerset  who  married  the  last  heiress  of 
that  house,  the  betrothed  of  three  husbands.  All  that  Lord 
Egremont  has,  all  the  Duke  of  Northumberland's  property, 
and  the  Duke  of  Rutland's  Cambridgeshire  estate,  belonged 
to  them,  which  together  is  probably  equivalent  to  between 
£200,000  and  £300,000  a  year.  Banks  told  me  that  the 
Northumberland  property,  when  settled  on  Sir  H.  Smithson, 
was  not  above  £12,000  a  year.1 

1  [The  eleventh  Earl  of  Northumberland,  Joscelyn  Percy,  died  in  1670, 
leaving  an  only  daughter,  who  married  Charles  Seymour,  ninth  Duke  of  Som- 
erset. This  lady  is  described  as  "  the  betrothed  of  three  husbands,"  because 
she  was  married  at  fourteen  to  Henry  Cavendish,  son  of  the  Duke  of  Newcas- 
tle, who  died  in  the  following  year.  She  was  then  affianced  to  Thomas  Thynne 
of  Longleat,  who  was  assassinated  in  1682  ;  and  at  last  married  to  the  Duke  cf 


1832.]  RECEPTION  OF  NAMIK  PASHA.  131 

Brighton^  December  31st. — Lady  Howe  gave  me  an  ac- 
count of  the  offer  of  the  Chamberlainship  to  her  husband 
again.  They  added  the  condition  that  he  should  not  oppose 
Government,  but  was  not  to  be  obliged  to  support  them.  This 
he  refused,  and  he  regarded  the  proposal  as  an  insult ;  so  the 
Queen  was  not  conciliated  the  more.  She  likewise  told  me 
that  the  cause  of  her  former  wrath  when  he  was  dismissed 
was,  that  neither  the  King  nor  Lord  Grey  told  her  of  it,  and 
that,  if  they  had,  she  would  have  consented  to  the  sacrifice  at 
once  with  a  good  grace ;  but  in  the  way  it  was  done  she 
thought  herself  grossly  ill-used.  It  is  impossible  to  ascertain 
the  exact  nature  of  this  connection.  Howe  conducts  himself 
toward  her  like  a  young,  ardent  lover;  he  never  is  out  of  the 
Pavilion,  dines  there  almost  every  day,  or  goes  every  evening, 
rides  with  her,  never  quitting  her  side,  and  never  takes  his 
eyes  off  her.  She  does  nothing,  but  she  admits  his  attentions 
and  acquiesces  in  his  devotion ;  at  the  same  time  there  is  not 
the  smallest  evidence  that  she  treats  him  as  a  lover.  Tf  she 
did,  it  would  be  soon  known,  for  she  is  surrounded  by  ene- 
mies. All  the  Fitzclarences  dislike  her,  and  treat  her  more  or 
less  disrespectfully.  She  is  aware  of  it,  but  takes  no  notice. 
She  is  very  civil  and  good-humored  to  them  all ;  and,  as  long 
as  they  keep  within  the  bounds  of  decency,  and  do  not  break 
out  into  actual  impertinence,  she  probably  will  continue  so. 

Two  nights  ago  there  was  a  great  assembly  after  a  dinner 
for  the  reception  of  the  Turkish  Embassador,  Namik  Pasha. 
He  was  brought  down  by  Palmerston,  and  introduced  before 
dinner  to  the  King  and  Queen.  He  is  twenty-eight  years  old, 
speaks  French  well,  and  has  good  manners ;  his  dress  very 
simple — a  red  cap,  black  vest,  trousers  and  boots,  a  gold  chain 
and  medal  round  his  neck.  He  did  not  take  out  any  lady  to 
dinner,  but  was  placed  next  the  Queen.  After  dinner  the 
King  made  him  a  ridiculous  speech,  with  abundant  flourishes 

Somerset.  The  eldest  son  of  this  marriage,  Algernon  Seymour,  who  succeeded 
to  the  Dukedom  of  Somerset  in  1748.  was  created  Earl  of  Northumberland  on 
the  2d  of  October,  1749,  and  Earl  of  Egremont  on  the  following  day.  with  re- 
mainder (as  regards  the  latter  title)  to  nis  nephew  Sir  Charles  Wyndhara,  who 
succeeded  him  in  February,  1750.  The  Earldom  of  Northumberland  passed  at 
the  same  time  to  Sir  Hugn  Smithson,  son-in-law  of  Duko  Algernon,  who  was 
created  Duke  of  Northumberland  in  1766.  The  titles  and  the  vast  property  of 
the  Duke  of  Somerset,  Earl  of  Northumberland,  thus  came  to  be  divided. 

George  O'Brien  Wyndham,  third  Earl  of  Egremont,  to  whom  Mr.  Grevillo 
paid  this  visit,  was  born  on  the  18th  of  December,  1751.  Ho  was  therefore 
eighty-two  years  old  at  this  time  ;  but  he  lived  five  years  longer,  and  died  in 
1837,  famous  and  beloved  for  his  splendid  hospitality  and  for  hia  liberal  and 
judicious  patronage  of  the  arts,  and  likewise  of  the  turf.] 


132  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

about  the  Sultan  and  his  friendship  for  him,  which  is  the  more 
droll  from  his  having  been  High  Admiral  at  the  time  of  the 
battle  of  Navarino,  to  which  the  Pasha  replied  in  a  sonorous 
voice.  He  admired  every  thing,  and  conversed  with  great 
ease.  All  the  stupid,  vulgar  Englishwomen  followed  him 
about  as  a  lion,  with  offensive  curiosity. 

1833. 

January  3d. — Lady  Howe  begged  her  husband  to  show 
me  the  correspondence  between  him  and  Sir  Herbert  Taylor 
about  the  Chamberlainship.  It  is  long  and  confused  ;  Taylor's 
first  letter,  in  my  opinion,  very  impertinent,  for  it  reads  him 
a  pretty  severe  lecture  about  his  behavior  when  he  held  the 
office  before.  Howe  is  a  foolish  man,  but  in,  this  business  he 
acted  well  enough,  better  than  might  have  been  expected. 
Taylor,  by  the  King's  desire,  proposed  to  him  to  resume  the 
office ;  and,  after  some  caviling,  he  agreed  to  do  so,  with 
liberty  to  vote  as  he  pleased,  but  promising  not  to  be  violent. 
So  stood  the  matter  on  the  9th  of  September.  He  heard 
nothing  moce  of  it  till  the  5th  of  November,  when  young 
Hudson *  wrote  by  the  King's  orders  to  know  definitely  if 
he  meant  to  take  it,  but  that,  if  he  did,  he  must  be  "  neutral." 
Howe  wrote  back  word  that  on  such  terms  he  declined  it.  I 
told  him  my  opinion  of  the  whole  business,  and  added  my 
strenuous  advice  that  he  should  immediately  prevail  on  the 
Queen  to  appoint  somebody  else.  I  could  not  tell  him  all 
that  people  said,  but  I  urged  it  as  strongly  as  I  could,  hinting 
that  there  were  very  urgent  reasons  for  so  doing.  He  did  not 
relish  this  advice  at  all,  owned  that  he  clung  tenaciously  to 
the  office,  liked  every  thing  about  it,  and  longed  to  avail  him- 
self of  some  change  of  circumstances  to  return  ;  and  that, 
though  he  was  no  longer  her  officer,  he  had  ever  since  done 
all  the  business,  and  in  fact  was,  without  the  name,  as  much 
her  Chamberlain  as  ever.  Lady  Howe,  who  is  vexed  to  death 
at  the  whole  thing,  was  enchanted  at  my  advice,  and  vehe- 
mently urged  him  to  adopt  it.  After  he  went  away,  she  told 
me  how  glad  she  was  at  what  I  had  said,  and  asked  me  if 
people  did  not  say  and  believe  every  thing  of  Howe's  connec- 

1  ["  Young  Hudson  "  was  the  page  of  honor  who  was  sent  to  Kome  in  tho 
following  year  to  fetch  Sir  Robert  Peel,  when,  as  Mr.  Disraeli  expressed  it, 
"  the  hurried  Hudson  rushed  into  the  chambers  of  his  Vatican."  He  grew  up 
to  be  a  very  able  and  distinguished  diplomatist,  Sir  James  Hudson,  G.  C.  B. 
who  rendered  great  services  to  the  cause  of  Italian  independence.] 


1833.]  PEEL'S  DUPLICITY.  133 

tion  with  the  Queen,  which  I  told  her  they  did.  I  must  say 
that  what  passed  is  enough  to  satisfy  me  that  there  is  what  is 
called  "  nothing  in  it "  but  the  folly  and  vanity  of  being  the 
confidential  officer  and  councilor  of  this  hideous  Queen,  for 
whom  he  has  worked  himself  up  into  a  sort  of  chivalrous  de- 
votion. Yesterday  Howe  spoke  to  the  Queen  about  it,  and 
proposed  to  speak  to  the  King ;  the  Queen  (he  says)  would 
not  hear  of  it,  and  forbade  his  speaking  to  the  King.  To-day 
he  is  gone  away,  and  I  don't  know  what  he  settled ;  probably 
nothing. 

Lyndhurst  dined  here  the  day  before  yesterday.  Finding 
I  knew  all  that  had-passed  about  the  negotiations  for  a  Tory 
Government  in  the  middle  of  the  Reform  question,  he  told 
me  his  story,  which  differs  very  little  from  that  which 
Arbuthnot  had  told  me  at  Downham,  and  fully  corroborates 
his  account  of  the  duplicity  of  Peel  and  the  extraordinary 
conduct  of  Lyndhurst  himself.  He  said  that  as  soon  as  he 
had  left  the  King  he  went  to  the  Duke,  who  said  he  must  go 
directly  to  Peel.  Peel  refused  to  join.  The  Duke  desired 
him  to  go  back  to  Peel,  and  propose  to  him  to  be  Prime 
Minister  and  manage  every  thing  himself.  Peel  still  declined, 
on  which  he  went  to  Baring.  Baring  begged  he  might  con- 
sult Peel,  which  was  granted.  He  came  back,  said  he  would 
take  office,  but  that  they  must  invite  Manners  Sutton  also. 
They  did  so,  and  Sutton  refused.  Vesey  Fitzgerald,  however, 
suggested  to  Lyndhurst  that  if  they  proposed  to  Sutton  to  be 
Prime  Minister  perhaps  he  would  accept.  Another  conversa- 
tion ensued  with  Sutton,  and  a  meeting  was  fixed  at  Apsley 
House  on  the  Sunday.  In  the  mean  time  Lyndhurst  went  down 
to  the  King  and  told  him  what  had  taken  place,  adding  that 
Sutton  would  not  do,  and  that  the  Duke  alone  could  form  a 
Government.  At  Apsley  House  Sutton  talked  for  three  hours, 
and  such  infernal  nonsense  that  Lyndhurst  was  ready  to  go 
mad;  nor  would  he  decide.  They  pressed  him  to  say  if  he 
\vould  take  office  or  not.  He  said  he  must  wait  till  the  next 
morning.  They  said,  "  It  must  be  very  early,  then."  In  the 
morning  he  put  off  deciding  (on  some  frivolous  pretext)  till 
the  afternoon.  He  went  to  the  House  of  Commons  without 
having  given  any  answer.  The  famous  debate  ensued,  and  the 
whole  game  was  up. 

All  this  tallies  with  the  other  account,  only  he  did  not 
say  that  Peel  had  desired  Baring  to  insist  on  Sutton,  and  had 
advised  Sutton  to  take  no  place  but  the  highest,  nor  that  he 


134  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

had  without  the  Duke's  knowledge  offered  Sutton  that  post, 
and  concealed  from  Sutton  his  subsequent  opinion  of  his 
incapacity  and  determination  that  he  should  not  have  it.  I 
asked  Lyndhurst  how  he  managed  with  Sutton,  and 
whether  he  had  not  come  to  Apsley  House  with  the  impression 
on  his  mind  that  he  was  to  be  Premier.  He  said  that  "he 
had  evaded  that  question  with  Sutton" — that  is,  all  parties 
were  deceived,  while  the  Duke,  who  meant  to  act  nobly,  suf- 
fered all  the  blame.  He  showed  great  disregard  of  personal 
interests  and  selfish  views,  but  1  shall  always  think  his  error 
was  enormous.  It  is  remarkable  that  this  story  is  so  little 
known. 

The}*  had  a  dinner  and  dancing  the  night  before  last  at  the 
Pavilion  for  New-Year's  day,  and  the  King  danced  a  country- 
dance  with  Lord  Amelius  Beauclerc,  an  old  Admiral. 

JLoncZon,  January  llth. — Came  to  town  with  Alvanley  the 
day  before  yesterday.  Howe  plucked  up  courage,  spoke  to 
the  King  and  Queen,  and  settled  Denbigh's  appointment,1 
though  not  without  resistance  on  the  part  of  their  Majesties. 
Lord  Grey  came  down,  and  was  very  well  received  by  both. 
At  the  commerce-table  the  King  sat  by  him,  and  was  full  of 
jokes ;  called  him  continually  "  Lord  Howe,"  to  the  great 
amusement  of  the  by-standers  and  of  Lord  Grey  himself. 
Munster  came  down  and  was  reconciled,  condescending, 
moyennant  a  douceur  of  £2,500,  to  accept  the  Constableship 
of  the  Round  Tower.  The  stories  of  the  King  are  uncom- 
monly ridiculous.  He  told  Madame  de  Ludolf,  who  had  been 
Embassadress  at  Constantinople,  that  he  desired  she  would 
recommend  Lady  Ponsonby  to  all  her  friends  there,  and  she 
might  tell  them  she  was  the  daughter  of  one  of  his  late 
brother's  sultanas  (Lady  Jersey).  His  Majesty  insisted  on 
Lord  Stafford's  taking  the  title  of  Sutherland,  and  ordered 
Gower  to  send  him  an  express  to  say  so.  One  day  at  dinner 
he  asked  the  Duke  of  Devonshire  "where  he  meant  to  be 
buried!" 

I  received  a  few  days  ago  at  Brighton  the  draft  of  a  Bill 
of  Brougham's,  for  transferring  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Del- 
egates to  the  Privy  Council,  or  rather  for  creating  a  new 
Court  and  sinking  the  Privy  Council  in  it.  Lord  Lansdowne 
sent  it  to  ine,  and  desired  me  to  send  him  my  opinion  upon  it. 

1  [William  Basil  Percy,  seventh.  Earl  of  Denbigh,  was  appointed  Chamber- 
lain to  Queen  Adelaide  at  this  time,  and  remained  in  the  service  of  her  Majestj 
— a  most  excellent  and  devoted  servant — to  the  close  of  her  life.] 


1333.]  THE   EMBARGO.  135 

I  showed  it  to  Stephen,  and  returned  it  to  Lord  Lansdovvne 
with  some  criticisms  in  which  Stephen  and  I  had  agreed. 
It  is  a  very  bungling  piece  of  work,  and  one  which  Lord 
Lansdowne  ought  not  to  consent  to,  the  object  evidently 
being  to  make  a  Court  of  which  Brougham  shall  be  at  the 
head,  and  to  transfer  to  it  much  of  the  authority  of  the  Crown, 
Parliament,  and  Privy  Council ;  all  from  his  ambitious  and 
insatiable  desire  of  personal  aggrandizement.  I  have  no  doubt 
he  is  playing  a  deep  game,  and  paving  the  way  for  his  own 
accession  to  power,  striving  to  obtain  popularity  and  influence 
with  the  King ;  that  he  will  succeed  to  a  great  degree,  and  for 
a  certain  time,  is  probable.  Manners  Sutton  is  to  be  again 
Speaker.  Althorp  wrote  him  a  very  flummery  letter,  and  he 
accepted.  The  Government  want  to  be  out  of  the  scrape 
they  are  in  between  Abercromby  and  Littleton,  and  Sutton 
wants  his  peerage.  Every  thing  seems  prosperous  here ;  the 
Government  is  strong,  the  House  of  Commons  is  thought  re- 
spectable on  the  whole  and  safe,  trade  is  brisk,  funds  rising, 
money  plentiful,  confidence  reviving,  Tories  sulky. 

January  17th. — The  Government  don't  know  what  to  do 
about  the  embargo  on  the  Dutch  ships.  Soon  after  they  had 
laid  it  on  they  made  a  second  order,  allowing  ships  with 
perishable  goods  to  go  free ;  and  thinking  the  whole  thing 
would  be  soon  over,  they  desired  this  might  be  construed  in- 
dulgently, and  accordingly  many  ships  were  suffered  to  pass 
(with  goods  more  or  less  perishing)  under  that  order.  Now 
that  the  King  of  Holland  continues  obstinate  they  want  to 
squeeze  him,  and  to  construe  the  order  strictly.  There  have 
been  many  consultations  what  to  do,  whether  they  should 
make  another  order  rescinding  the  last  or  execute  the  former 
more  strictly.  Both  are  liable  to  objections.  The  first  will 
appear  like  a  cruel  proceeding  and  evidence  of  uncertainty  of 
purpose ;  the  last  will  show  a  capricious  variation  in  the 
practice  of  the  Privy  Council,  with  which  the  matter  rests. 
Their  wise  heads  were  put  together  last  night  to  settle  this 
knotty  point. 

Wharncliffe  showed  me  a  paper  he  has  written,  in  which, 
after  briefly  recapitulating  the  present  state  of  the  Tory  party 
and  the  condition  of  the  new  Parliament  (particularly  as  to  the 
mode  in  which  it  was  elected,  or  rather  under  what  influence), 
he  proceeds  to  point  out  what  ought  to  be  the  course  for  the 
Tories  to  adopt.  It  is  moderate  and  becoming  enough,  and 
he  has  imparted  it  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  who  concurs  in 


136  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

his  view.  I  wonder,  however,  that  he  is  not  sick  of  writing 
papers  and  imparting  views,  after  all  that  passed  last  year, 
after  his  fruitless  attempts,  his  false  moves,  and  the  treatment 
he  received  at  the  hands  of  the  Tories ;  but  he  seems  to  have 
forgotten  or  forgiven  every  thing,  and  is  disposed  to  wriggle 
himself  back  among  the  party  upon  any  terms.  He  acknowl- 
edges one  thing  fully,  and  that  is  the  desperate  and,  wobegone 
condition  of  the  party  itself,  and  the  impossibility  of  their  doing 
any  thing  now  as  a  party. 

Lord  Lansdowne  received  very  complacently  my  criticisms 
on  Brougham's  Bill,  and  has  acknowledged  since  he  came  to 
town  that  it  would  not  do  at  all  as  it  now  stands.  The  King 
has  been  delighting  the  Whigs,  and  making  himself  more 
ridiculous  and  contemptible  by  the  most  extravagant  civilities 
to  the  new  Peers — that  is,  to  Western  and  about  Lord  Staf- 
ford. He  now  appears  to  be  very  fond  of  his  Ministers. 

January  19th. — I  have  at  last  succeeded  in  stimulating 
Lord  Lansdowne  to  something  like  resistance  (or  rather  the 
promise  of  it)  to  Brougham's  Bill.  I  have  proved  to  him  that 
his  dignity  and  his  interest  will  both  be  compromised  by  this 
Bill,  which  intends  to  make  the  Chancellor  President  of  the 
Court,  and  ergo  of  the  Council,  and  to  give  him  all  the  patron- 
age there  will  be.  Against  these  proposals  he  kicks ;  at  least 
he  is  restive,  and  shows  symptoms  of  kicking,  though  he  will 
very  likely  be  still  again.  I  sent  the  Bill  to  Stephen,  who 
instantly  and  currente  calamo  drew  up  a  series  of  objections 
to  it,  as  comprehensive  and  acute  as  all  his  productions  are, 
and  last  night  I  sent  it  to  Leach  (who  hates  the  Chancellor), 
and  he  has  returned  it  to  me  with  a  strong  condemnatory 
reply.  Stephen  having  told  me  that  Howick  would  be  too 
happy  to  oppose  this  Bill,  on  account  of  the  influence  it  would 
have  on  Colonial  matters,  particularly  about  Canada,  I  took  it 
to  him,  but  he  declined  interfering,  though  he  concurred  in 
Stephen's  remarks. 

,  January  22d. — Dined  with  Talleyrand  the  day  before 
yesterday.  Nobody  there  but  his  attaches.  After  dinner  he 
told  me  about  his  first  residence  in  England,  and  his  ac- 
quaintance with  Fox  and  Pitt.  He  always  talks  in  a  kind 
of  affectionate  tone  about  the  former,  and  is  now  meditating 
a  visit  to  Mrs.  Fox  at  St.  Anne's  Hill,  where  he  may  see  her 
surrounded  with  the  busts,  pictures,  and  recollections  of  her 
husband.  He  delights  to  dwell  on  the  simplicity,  gayety, 
childishness,  and  profoundness  of  Fox.  I  asked  him  if  he  had 


1833.] 


HARTWELL.  137 


ever  known  Pitt,  He  said  that  Pitt  came  to  Rheims  to  learn 
French,  and  he  was  there  at  the  same  time  on  a  visit  to  the 
Archbishop,  his  uncle  (whom  I  remember  at  Hartwell,1  a  very 
old  prelate  with  the  tic-douloureux),  and  that  he  and  Pitt  lived 
together  for  nearly  six  weeks,  reciprocally  teaching  each  other 
French  and  English.  After  Chauvelin  had  superseded  him, 
and  that  he  and  Chauvelin  had  disagreed,  he  went  to  live 

1  [Mr.  Greville  had  paid  a  visit  with  his  father  to  the  little  Court  of  Louis 
XV  III.  at  Ilartwell  about  two  years  before  the  Restoration,  .when  he  was  eigh- 
t(.j<_-:i  years  of  age.  His  narrative  of  this  visit  has  been  printed  in  the  fifth  vol- 
ume of  the  "  Miscellany  of  the  Philobiblon  Society,"  out  it  may  not  be  in- 
appropriately inserted  here.] 

A  VISIT  TO  HAKTWELL. 

April  14, 1814. 

I  have  often  determined  to  commit  to  paper  as  much  as  I  can  remember  of  my  visit  to 
Hartwell ;  and,  as  the  King  is  about  to  ascend  the  throne  of  his  ancestors,  it  is  not  unin- 
teresting to  recall  to  mind  the  particulars  of  a  visit  paid  to  him  while  in  exile  and  in  pov- 
erty. 

About  two  years  ago  my  father  and  I  went  to  Hartwell  by  invitation  of  the  King.  Wo 
dressed  at  Ayleslmry,  and  proceeded  to  Hartwell,  in  the  afternoon.  We  had  previously 
taken  a  walk  m  the  environs  of  the  town,  and  had  met  the  Dnchesse  d'Angouleine  on  horse- 
back, accompanied  by  Madame  Choisi.  At  five  o'clock  we  set  out  to  Ilartwell.  The  house 
is  large,  but  in  a  dreary,  disagreeable  situation.  The  King  had  completely  altered  the  in- 
terior, having  subdivided  almost  all  the  apartments  in  order  to  lodge  a  greater  number  of 
people.  There  were  numerous  out-houses,  in  some  of  which  small  shops  had  been  estab- 
lished by  the  servants,  interspersed  with  gardens,  so  that  the  place  resembled  a  little  town. 

Upon  entering  the  house  we  were  conducted  by  the  Due  de  Grammont  into  the  King's 
private  apartment.  He  received  us  most  graciously,  and  shook  hands  with  both  of  us. 
This  apartment  was  exceedingly  small,  hardly  larger  than  a  closet  and  I  remarked  pict- 
ures of  the  late  King  and  Queen,  Madame  Elizabeth,  and  the  Dauphin,  Louis  XVII., 
hanging  on  the  walls.  The  King  had  a  manner  of  swinging  his  body  backward  and  for- 
ward, which  caused  the  most  unpleasant  sensations  in  that  small  room,  and  made  my 
father  feel  something  like  being  sea-sick.  The  room  was  just  like  a  cabin,  and  the  motions 
of  his  Majesty  exactly  resembled  the  heaving  of  a  ship.  After  our  audience  with  the 
King  we  were  taken  to  the  salon,  a  large  room  with  a  billiard-table  at  one  end.  Here  the 
party  assembled  before  dinner,  to  all  of  whom  we  were  presented — the  Duchesse  d'Angou- 
leme,  Monsieur  the  Due  d'Angouleme,  the  Due  de  Berri,  the  Prince  and  Princess  de  Conde 
(ci-d-evant  Madame  de  Monaco),  and  a  vast  number  of  Dues,  etc. ;  Madame  la  Duchesse  de 
Serrcn  (a  little  old  dame  d'honneur  to  Madame  d'Angouleme),  the  Due  de  Lorpes,  the 
Due  d'Auray,  the  Archevfique  de  Rheims  (an  infirm  old  prelate,  tortured  with  the  tic- 
douloureux),  and  many  others  whose  names  I  cannot  remember.  At  a  little  after  six  din- 
ner was  announced,  when  we  went  into  the  next  room,  the  King  walking  out  first  The 
dinner  was  extremely  plain,  consisting  of  very  few  dishes,  and  no  wines  except  port  and 
sherry.  lite  Majesty  did  the  honors  himself,  and  was  very  civil  and  agreeable.  We  were 
a  very  short  time  at  the  table,  and  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  all  got  up  together.  Each  of 
the  ladies  folded  up  her  napkin,  tied  it  round^with  a  bit  of  ribbon,  and  carried  it  away. 
After  dinner  we  returned  to  the  drawing-roem  and  drank  coffee.  The  whole  party  re- 
mained in  conversation  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  when  the  King  retired  to  his  closet, 
upon  which  all  repaired  to  their  separate  apartments.  Whenever  the  King  came  in  or 
went  out  of  the  room,  Madame  d'Angouleme  made  him  a  low  courtesy,  which  he  returned  by 
bowing  and  kissing  his  hand.  This  little  ceremony  never  failed  to  take  place.  After  the 
party  had  separated  we  were  taken  to  the  Due  de  Grammont's  apartments,  where  we  drank 
tea.  Alter  remaining  there  about  three-quarters  of  an  hour  we  went  to  the  apartment  of 
Madame  d'AngoulOme,  where  a  great  part  of  the  company  were  assembled,  and  where  we 
staid  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  After  this  we  descended  again  to  the  drawing-room, 
whcro  several  card-tables  were  laid  out.  The  King  played  at  whist  with  the  Prince  and 
Princess  de  Conde  and  my  father.  His  Majesty  settled  the  points  of  the  game  at"le 
quart  d'un  sliding."  The  rest  of  the  party  played  at  billiards  or  ombre.  The  King  was 
so  civil  as  to  invite  us  to  sleep  there,  instead  of  returning  to  the  inn  at  Aylesbury.  Wheu 
he  invited  us  ho  said,  "  Jo  crains  que  vous  screz  tres-mal  loges,  mais  on  donne  ce  qu'on 
pent."  Soon  after  eleven  the  King  retired,  when  we  separated  for  the  night.  We  were 
certainly  '•  trcs-mal  logos."  In  the  morning  when  I  got  out  of  bed,  I  was  alarmed  by  the 


133  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

near  Epsom  (at  Juniper  Hall)  with  Madame  de  Stael ;  after- 
ward they  came  to  London,  and  in  the  mean  time  Pitt  had  got 
into  the  hands  of  the  emigr'es,  who  persuaded  him  to  send 
Talleyrand  away,  and  accordingly  he  received  orders  to  quit 
England  in  twenty-four  hours.  He  embarked  on  board  a  ves- 
sel for  America,  but  was  detained  in  the  river  off  Greenwich. 
Dundas  sent  to  him,  and  asked  him  to  come  and  stay  with 
him  while  the  ship  was  detained,  but  he  said  he  would  not  set 
his  foot  on  English  ground  again,  and  remained  three  weeks 
on  board  the  ship  in  the  river.  It  is  strange  to  hear  M.  de 
Talleyrand  talk  at  seventy-eight.  He  opens  the  stores  of  his 
memory  and  pours  forth  a  stream  on  any  subject  connected 
with  his  past  life.  Nothing  seems  to  have  escaped  from  that 
great  treasury  of  by-gone  events. 

January  2±th. — I  have  at  last  made  Lord  Lansdowne 
fire  a  shot  at  the  Chancellor  about  this  Bill.  He  has  written 
him  a  letter,  in  which  he  has  embodied  Stephen's  objections 
and  some  of  his  own  (as  he  says,  for  I  did  not  see  the  letter). 
The  Chancellor  will  be  very  angry,  for  he  can't  endure  contra- 
diction, and  he  has  a  prodigious  contempt  for  the  Lord  Pres- 
ident, whom  he  calls  "  Mother  Elizabeth."  He  probably  ar- 
rives at  the  sobriquet  through  Petty,  Betty,  and  so  on. 

Dined  with  Talleyrand  yesterday  ;  Pozzo,  who  said  little 
and  seemed  low  ;  Talleyrand  talked  after  dinner,  said  that 
Cardinal  Fleury  was  one  of  the  greatest  Ministers  who  ever 
governed  France,  and  that  justice  had  never  been  done  him  ; 
he  had  maintained  peace  for  twenty  years,  and  acquired  Lor- 
raine for  France.  He  said  this  d  propos  of  the  library  he 
formed  or  left,  or  whatever  he  did  in  that  line,  at  Paris.  He 
told  me  he  goes  very  often  to  the  British  Museum,  and  has 
lately  made  them  a  present  of  a  book. 

January  26th. — It  seems  that  the  Government  project  (or 
perhaps  only  the  fact  that  they  have  one)  about  West  Indian 
emancipation  has  got  wind,  and  the  West  Indians  are  of 
course  in  a  state  of  great  alarm.  They  believe  that  it  will 
be  announced,  whatever  it  is  to  bo,  in  the  King's  Speech, 
though  I  doubt  there  being  any  thing  but  a  vague  intention 

appearance  of  an  old  woman  on  the  leads  before  my  window,  who  was  hanging  linen  to  dry. 
I  was  forced  to  retreat  hastily  to  bed,  not  to  shock  the  old  lady's  modesty.  At  ten  the 
next  morning  we  breakfasted,  and  at  eleven  we  took  leave  of  the  King  (who  always  went 
to  Mass  at  that  hour)  and  returned  to  London.  We  saw  the  whole  place  before  we  came 
away;  and  they  certainly  had  shown  great  ingenuity  in  contriving  to  lodge  such  a  number 
of  people  in  and  about  the  house— it  was  exactly  like  a  small  rising  colony.  We  were  very 
much  pleased  with  our  expedition ;  and  were  invited  to  return  whenever  we  could  aiuke  il 
convenient. 


1833.]  ABOLITION   OF  SLAVERY.  139 

expressed  in  it.  Of  all  political  feelings  and  passions — and 
such  this  rage  for  emancipation  is,  rather  than  a  considera- 
tion of  interest — it  has  always  struck  me  as  the  most  ex- 
traordinary and  remarkable.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  a 
great  many  of  the  Abolitionists  are  actuated  by  very  pure 
motives  ;  they  have  been  shocked  at  the  cruelties  which  have 
been  and  still  are  very  often  practised  toward  slaves,  their 
minds  are  imbued  with  the  horrors  they  have  read  and  heard 
of,  and  they  have  an  invincible  conviction  that  the  state  of 
slavery  under  any  form  is  repugnant  to  the  spirit  of  the  Eng- 
lish Constitution  and  the  Christian  religion,  and  that  it  is  a 
stain  upon  the  national  character  which  ought  to  be  wiped 
away.  These  people,  generally  speaking,  are  very  ignorant 
concerning  all  the  various  difficulties  which  beset  the  ques- 
tion ;  their  notions  are  superficial  ;  they  pity  the  slaves, 
whom  they  regard  as  injured  innocents,  and  they  hate  their 
masters,  whom  they  treat  as  criminal  barbarians.  Others  are 
animated  in  this  cause  purely  by  ambition,  and  by  finding 
that  it  is  a  capital  subject  to  talk  upon,  and  a  cheap  and  easy 
species  of  benevolence  ;  others  have  satisfied  themselves  that 
slavery  is  a  mistaken  system,  that  the  cruelty  of  it  is  alto- 
gether gratuitous,  and  that  free  labor  will  answer  the  purpose 
as  well  or  better,  and  get  rid  of  the  odium  ;  and  thousands 
more  have  mixed  feelings  and  opinions,  compounded  of  some 
or  all  of  the  above  in  various  degrees  and  proportions,  accord- 
ing to  the  bent  of  individual  character  ;  but  there  are  some 
persons  among  the  most  zealous  and  able  of  the  Abolitionists 
who  avail  themselves  of  the  passions  and  the  ignorance  of  the 
people  to  carry  this  point,  while  they  carefully  conceal  their 
own  sentiments  as  to  the  result  of  the  experiment.  I  say 
some,  because,  though  I  only  know  (of  my  own  knowledge) 
of  one,  from  the  sagacity  of  the  man,  and  the  conformity 
of  his  opinions  with  those  of  others  on  this  and  other  topics, 
I  have  no  doubt  that  there  are  many  who  view  the  matter  in 
the  same  light.  I  allude  to  Henry  Taylor,1  who  rules  half 
the  West  Indies  in  the  Colonial  Office,  though  with  an  invisi- 
ble sceptre.  Talking  over  the  matter  the  other  day,  he  said 
that  he  was  well  aware  of  the  consequences  of  emancipation 
both  to  the  negroes  and  the  planters.  The  estates  of  the 
latter  would  not  be  cultivated  ;  it  would  be  impossible, 


>  [Afterward  Sir  Henry  Taylor,  K.  M.  G.,  author  of  "  Philip  van  Artevelde." 
Nearly  forty  years  later  Sir  H.  Taylor  continued  to  fill  the  same  position  de- 
scribed by  Air.  Greville  in  1833.  He  resigned  in  1872.1 


140  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

for  want  of  labor ;  the  negroes  would  not  work — no  induce- 
ment would  be  sufficient  to  make  them  ;  they  wanted  to 
be  free  merely  that  they  might  be  idle.  They  would,  on 
being  emancipated,  possess  themselves  of  ground,  the  fer- 
tility of  which  in  those  region*  is  so  great  that  very  tri- 
fling labor  will  be  sufficient  to  provide  them  with  the 
means  of  existence,  and  they  will  thus  relapse  rapidly 
into  a  state  of  barbarism ;  they  will  resume  the  habits 
of  their  African  brethren,  but,  he  thinks,  without  the 
ferocity  and  savageness  which  distinguish  the  latter.  Of 
course  the  germs  of  civilization  and  religion  which  have  been 
sown  among  them  in  their  servile  state  will  be  speedily 
obliterated ;  if  not,  as  man  must  either  rise  or  fall  in  the 
moral  scale,  they  will  acquire  strength,  with  it  power,  and  as 
certainly  the  desire  for  using  that  power  for  the  amelioration 
of  their  condition.  The  island  (for  Jamaica  may  be  taken  for 
example,  as  it  was  in  our  conversation)  would  not  long  be 
tenable  for  whites ;  indeed,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  any 
planters  could  remain  there  when  their  property  was  no  longer 
cultivable,  even  though  the  emancipated  negroes-  should  be- 
come as  harmless  and  gentle  as  the  ancient  Mexicans.  Not- 
withstanding this  view  of  the  matter,  in  which  my  friend  has 
the  sagacity  to  perceive  some  of  the  probable  consequences  of 
the  measure,  though  (he  admits)  with  much  uncertainty  as  to 
its  operation,  influenced  as  it  must  be  by  circumstances  and 
accidents,  he  is  for  emancipating  at  once.  "  Fiat  justitia  ruat 
ccelum " — that  is,  I  do  not  know  that  he  is  for  immediate, 
unconditional  emancipation ;  I  believe  not,  but  he  is  for  doing 
the  deed ;  whether  he  goes  before  or  lags  after  the  Govern- 
ment I  do  not  at  this  moment  know.  He  is,  too,  a  high-prin- 
cipled man,  full  of  moral  sensibility  and  of  a  grave,  reflecting, 
philosophical  character,  and  neither  a  visionary  in  religion  nor 
in  politics,  only  of  a  somewhat  austere  and  uncompromising 
turn  of  mind,  and  with  some  of  the  positiveness  of  a  theorist 
who  has  a  lofty  opinion  of  his  own  capacity,  and  has  never 
undergone  that  discipline  of  the  world,  that  tumbling  and 
tossing  and  jostling,  which  beget  modesty  and  diffidence  and 
prudence,  from  the  necessity  which  they  inculcate  of  constant 
compromises  with  antagonistic  interests  and  hostile  passions. 
But  what  is  the  upshot  of  all  this  ?  Why,  that  in  the  midst 
of  the  uproar  and  confusion,  the  smoke  and  the  dust  of  the 
controversy,  one  may  believe  that  one  sees  a  glimmering  of 


1833.]  EGYPT  AND   TURKEY.  141 

the  real  futurity  in  the  case — and  that  is  a  long  series  of 
troubles  and  a  wide  scene  of  ruin. 

January  30th. — The  intentions  of  Government  with  re- 
gard to  the  West  Indies  (or  rather  that  they  have  intentions 
of  a  nature  very  fatal  to  that  interest)  having  got  wind,  the 
consternation  of  the  West  India  body  is  great.  A  deputation, 
headed  by  Sir  Alexander  Grant,  waited  upon  Lords  Grey  and 
Goderich  the  other  day,  and  put  certain  questions  to  them, 
stating  that  the  prevalence  of  reports,  some  of  which  had 
appeared  in  the  newspapers,  had  greatly  alarmed  them,  and 
they  wished  to  ascertain  if  any  of  them  had  been  authorized 
by  Government.  Lord  Grey  said  "  certainly  not ;  the  Gov- 
ernment had  authorized  nothing."  They  asked  if  he  would 
reappoint  the  Committees.  He  would  give  no  pledge  as  to 
this,  but  they  discussed  the  propriety  of  so  doing,  he  seeming 
indisposed.  To  all  their  questions  he  gave  vague  answers, 
refusing  to  communicate  any  thing  except  this,  that  nothing 
was  decided,  but  a  plan  was  under  the  consideration  of  the 
Cabinet  in  which  the  interests  of  all  parties  were  consulted. 
He  added  that  he  could  not  pledge  himself  to  give  any  pre- 
vious intimation  of  the  intentions  of  Government  to  the  West 
India  body,  nor  to  disclose  the  measure  at  all  until  it  was 
proposed  to  Parliament.  There  are  in  the  mean  time  no  end 
of  reports  of  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  proposed  measure, 
and  no  end  to  the  projects  and  opinions  of  those  who  are 
interested. 

I  dined  at  Lord  Bathurst's  yesterday,  and  sat  next  to  Lord 
Ellenborough,  who  said  that  he  was  convinced  the  best  thing 
the  proprietors  could  do  would  be  to  agree  instantly  to  stop 
their  orders,  which  he  believes  would  compel  Government  to 
arrest  their  course.  I  am  not  enough  acquainted  with  the 
subject  to  judge  how  far  they  might  operate,  but  I  doubt  it, 
or  that  in  the  temper  of  the  people  of  this  country,  or  rather 
of  those  zealots  who  represent  it,  and  with  the  disposition  of 
this  Government  to  yield  to  every  popular  cry,  the  fear  of  any 
•consequences  would  prevent  their  going  on.  It  would,  I 
believe,  only  give  them  and  the  House  of  Commons  a  pre- 
text for  refusing  them  pecuniary  compensation.  I  was  much 
amused  with  a  piece  of  vanity  of  Ellenborough's.  We  were 
talking  of  the  Avar  between  the  Turks  and  the  Egyptians, 
and  the  resources  of  Egypt,  etc.,  when  he  said,  "  If  I  had  con- 
tinued at  the  Board  of  Control  I  would  have  had  Egypt,  got 


142  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

at  it  from  the  Red  Sea ;  I  had  already  ordered  the  formation 
of  a  corps  of  Arab  guides  !  " 

February  1st. — The  Reformed  Parliament  opened  heavily 
(on  Tuesday),  as  Government  think  satisfactorily.  Cobbett 
took  his  seat  on  the  Treasury  Bench,  and  spoke  three  times, 
though  the  last  time  nobody  would  stay  to  hear  him.  He  was 
very  twaddling,  and  said  but  one  good  thing,  when  he  called 
O'Connell  the  member  for  Ireland. 

Saw  Madame  de  Lieven  the  day  before  yesterday,  who  fired 
a  tirade  against  Government ;  she  vowed  that  nobody  ever  had 
been  treated  with  such  personal  incivility  as  Lieven,  "  des 
injures,  des  reproches,"  that  Cobbett,  Hunt,  and  all  the 
blackguards  in  England  could  not  use  more  offensive  lan- 
guage ;  whatever  event  was  coming  was  imputed  to  Russia — 
Belgium,  Portugal,  Turkey,  "  tout  6tait  la  Russie  et  les 
intrigues  de  la  Russie ; "  that  she  foresaw  they  should  be 
driven  away  from  England.  With  reference  to  the  war  in 
Asia  Minor,  she  said  the  Sultan  had  applied  to  the  Emperor 
for  assistance,  "  et  qu'il  1'aurait,  et  que  le  Sultan  n'avait 
pas  un  meilleur  ami  que  lui,"  that  the  Egyptians  would  ad- 
vance no  farther,  and  a  great  deal  more  of  complaint  at 
the  injustice  evinced  toward  them  and  on  their  political  in- 
nocence. In  the  evening  I  told  all  this  to  Mellish  of  the 
Foreign  Office,  who  knows  every  thing  about  foreign  affairs, 
and  he  said  it  was  all  a  lie,  that  Russia  had  offered  her  as- 
sistance, which  the  Sultan  had  refused,  and  she  was,  in  fact, 
intriguing  and  making  mischief  in  every  Court  in  Europe. 
George  Villiers  writes  me  word  that  she  has  been  for  months 
past  endeavoring  to  get  up  a  war  anywhere,  and  that  this 
Turkish  business  is  more  likely  than  any  thing  to  bring  one 
about.1 

February  2d. — Dinner  at  Lord  Lansdowne's  for  the  Sheriffs; 
soon  over  and  not  particularly  disagreeable,  though  I  hate 
dining  with  the  Ministers ;  had  some  conversation  with  Gode- 
rich  about  Jamaica ;  he  says  Mulgrave  has  done  very  well 
there,  perhaps  rather  too  vigorously,  that  the  dissolution  of- 
the  Assembly  under  all  circumstances  is  questionable,  but  he 
must  be  supported  ;  he  hopes  nothing  from  another  Assembly, 
nor  does  Mulgrave,  who  says  that  they  are  incorrigible.  The 

1  [The  state  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  was  most  critical.  In  the  latter  months 
of  1832  the  victorious  troops  of  Meheroet  Ali  had  forced  their  way  across  the 
Taunus ;  the  peace  of  Koniah  was  concluded  early  in  1833  with  the  Egyptians ; 
and  the  Treaty  of  IJnkiar  Skelessi  with  the  Eussians  in  July,  lR'5;!.j 


1833.]  THE   WEST   INDIES.  143 

fact  is  their  conduct  paralyzes  the  exertions  of  their  friends 
here,  if,  indeed,  they  have  any  friends  who  would  make  any 
exertions. 

February  4th. — At  Court  for  the  King's  Speech  and  the 
appointment  of  Sheriffs^  Lord  Munster  and  Lord  Denbigh 
were  sworn  Privy  Councilors.  The  West  Indians  have  taken 
such  an  attitude  of  desperation  that  the  Government  is  some- 
what alarmed,  and  seems  disposed  to  pause  at  the  adoption 
of  its  abolitionary  measures.  George  Hibbert  told  me  last 
night  that  if  they  were  driven  to  extremities  there  was  nothing 
they  were  not  ready  to  do,  and  that  there  would  be  another 
panic  if  Government  did  not  take  care,  and  so  Rothschild  had 
told  them. 

I  dined  with  Madame  de  Lieven  yesterday,  who  is  in  the 
agonies  of  doubt  about  her  remaining  here.  It  turns  upon 
this  :  Stratford  Canning  has  been  appointed  Embassador  at  St. 
Petersburg,  and  the  Emperor  will  not  receive  him.  Palmer- 
ston  is  indignant,  and  will  not  send  anybody  else.  If  the  Em- 
peror persists,  we  shall  only  have  a  Charge  d'Affaires  at  his 
Court,  and  in  that  case  he  will  not  leave  an  Embassador  at  ours. 
There  seems  to  be  at  present  no  way  out  of  the  quarrel.  Strat- 
ford Canning's  mission  to  Madrid  cannot  last  forever,  and  when 
it  is  over  the  point  must  be  decided. 

The  people  of  Jamaica  have  presented  a  petition  to  the 
King  (I  don't  know  exactly  in  what  shape,  or  how  got  up), 
praying  to  be  released  from  their  allegiance.  Goderich  told 
me  that  it  was  very  insolent.  Mulgrave's  recent  coup  de 
theatre  is  severely  condemned.  Nothing  can  save  these  un- 
happy colonies,  for  all  parties  vie  with  each  other  in  violence 
and  folly — the  people  here  and  the  people  there,  the  Govern- 
ment here  and  the  Government  there. 

February  10th. — After  four  days'  debate  in  the  House  of 
Commons  (quite  unprecedented,  I  believe)  the  Address  was 
carried  by  a  large  majority.1  Opinions  are  of  course  very 
various  upon  the  state  of  the  House  and  the  character  of 
the  discussion.  The  anti-Reformers,  with  a  sort  of  melan- 
choly triumph,  boast  that  their  worst  expectations  have  been 
fulfilled.  The  Government  were  during  the  first  day  or  two 
very  serious,  and  though  on  the  whole  they  think  they  have 
reason  to  be  satisfied,  they  canpot  help  seeing  that  they 

1  [The  first  Keformed  Parliament  met,  and  was  formally  opened  on  the  29th 
of  January,  1833.  After  the  election  of  the  Speaker  (Manners  Sutton),  the 
King  delivered  his  Speech  from  the  Throne  on  the  5th  of  Fehruary.] 


144  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

have  in  fact  very  little  power  of  managing  the  House.  Every- 
body'agrees  that  the  aspect  of  the  House  of  Commons  was 
very  different — the  number  of  strange  faces  ;  the  swagger  of 
O'Connell,  walking  about  incessantly,  and  making  signs  to, 
or  talking  with,  his  followers  in  various  parts  ;  the  Tories  few 
and  scattered  ;  Peel  no  longer  surrdunded  with  a  stout  band 
of  supporters,  but  pushed  from  his  usual  seat,  which  is  oc- 
cupied by  Cobbett,  O'Connell,  and  the  Radicals  ;  he  is  gone 
up  nearer  to  the  Speaker. 

The  whole  debate  turned  upon  Ireland.  O'Connell  pro- 
nounced a  violent  but  powerful  philippic,  which  Stanley 
answered  very  well.  Macaulay  made  one  of  his  brilliant 
speeches  the  second  night,  and  Peel  spoke  the  third.  It  was 
not  possible  to  make  a  more  dexterous  and  judicious  speech 
than  he  did  ;  for  finding  himself  in  a  very  uncomfortable 
position,  he  at  once  placed  himself  in  a  good  one,  and  ac- 
knowledging that  his  situation  was  altogether  different  from 
what  it  had  been,  he  contrived  to  transfer  to  himself  person- 
ally much  of  the  weight  and  authority  which  he  previously 
held  as  the  organ  and  head  of  a  great  and  powerful  party. 
He  pronounced  a  eulogium  of  Stanley,  declared  that  his 
confidence  in  Government  was  not  augmented,  but  that  he 
would  support  them  if  they  would  support  law  and  order. 
The  Government  were  extremely  pleased  at  his  speech,  though 
I  think  not  without  a  secret  misgiving  that  they  are  likely  to 
be  more  in  his  power  than  is  pleasant.  But  the  benefit  re- 
sulting from  the  whole  is  that  the  Radicals  all  opposed  the 
Government,  while  Peel  supported  them  ;  so  that  we  may 
hope  that  a  complete  line  of  separation  is  drawn  between  the 
two  former,  and  that  the  Government  will  really  and  boldly 
take  the  Conservative  side.  On  the  whole,  perhaps,  this  bout 
may  be  deemed  satisfactory. 

February  1Uh. — The  night  before  last  Althorp  brought 
forward  his  plan  of  Irish  Church  Reform,  with  complete  suc- 
cess. He  did  it  well,  and  Stanley  made  a  very  brilliant 
speech.  The  House  received  vit  with  almost  unanimous  ap- 
plause, nobody  opposing  but  Inglis  and  Goulburn,  and  Peel, 
in  a  very  feeble  speech,  which  scarcely  deserves  the  name  of 
opposition  ;  it  will  be  of  great  service  to  the  Government. 
O'Connell  lauded  the  measure  up  to  the  skies  ;  but  Shiel  said 
he  would  bite  his  tongue  off  with  vexation  the  next  morning 
for  having  done  so,  after  he  had  slept  upon  it.  It  was  clear 
that  Peel,  who  is  courting  the  House,  and  exerting  all  his 


1833.]  PEEL'S  CONTRADICTORY   CHARACTER.  145 

dexterity  to  bring  men's  minds  round  to  him,  saw  the  stream 
was  too  strong  for  him  to  go  against  it,  so  he  made  a  sort  of 
temporizing,  moderate,  unmeaning  speech,  which  will  give 
him  time  to  determine  on  his  best  course,  and  did  not  commit 
him.  Poulett  Thomson  said  to  me  yesterday  that  Peel's 
prodigious  superiority  over  everybody  in  the  House  was  so 
evident,  his  talent  for  debate  and  thorough  knowledge  of 
Parliamentary  tactics,  gained  by  twenty  years  of  experience, 
so  commanding,  that  he  must  draw  men's  minds  to  him,  and 
that  he  was  evidently  playing  that  game,  throwing  over  the 
ultra-Tories  and  ingratiating  himself  with  the  House  and 
the  country.  He,  in  fact,  means  to  open  a  house  to  all  comers, 
and  make  himself  necessary  and  indispensable.  Under  that 
placid  exterior  he  conceals,  I  believe,  a  boundless  ambition, 
and  hatred  and  jealousy  lurk  under  his  professions  of  esteem 
and  political  attachment.  His  is  one  of  those  contradictory 
characters,  containing  in  it  so  much  of  mixed  good  and  evil, 
that  it  is  difficult  to  strike  an  accurate  balance  between  the 
two,  and  the  acts  of  his  political  life  are  of  a  corresponding 
description,  of  questionable  utility  and  merit,  though  always 
marked  by  great  ability.  It  is  very  sure  that  he  has  been 
the  instrument  of  great  good,  or  of  enormous  evil,  and  ap- 
parently more  of  the  latter.  He  came  into  life  the  child 
and  champion  of  a  political  system  which  has  been  for  a 
long  time  crumbling  to  pieces;  and  if  the  perils  which  are 
produced  by  its  fall  are  great,  they  are  mainly  attributable 
to  the  manner  in  which  it  was  upheld  by  Peel,  and  to  his 
want  of  sagacity,  in  a  wrong  estimate  of  his  means  of  de- 
fense and  of  the  force  of  the  antagonist  power  with  which 
he  had  to  contend.  The  leading  principles  of  his  political 
conduct  have  been  constantly  erroneous,  and  his  dexterity 
and  ability  in  supporting  them  have  only  made  the  conse- 
quences of  his  errors  more  extensively  pernicious.  If  we 
look  back  through  the  long  course  of  Peel's  life,  and  inquire 
what  have  been  the  great  political  measures  with  which  his 
name  is  particularly  connected,  we  shall  find,  first,  the  return 
to  cash  payments,  which  almost  everybody  now  agrees  was 
a  fatal  mistake,  though  it  would  not  be  fair  to  visit  him  with 
extraordinary  censure  for  a  measure  which  was  sanctioned 
by  almost  all  the  great  financial  authorities;  secondly,  op- 
position to  Reform  in  Parliament  and  to  religious  emancipa- 
tion of  every  kind,  the  maintenance  of  the  exclusive  system, 
and  support,  untouched  and  uncorrected,  of  the  Church,  botii 
29 


146  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XX. 

English  and  Irish.  His  resistance  to  alterations  on  these 
heads  was  conducted  with  great  ability,  and  for  a  long  time 
with  success;  but  he  was  endeavoring  to  uphold  a  system 
which  was  no  longer  supportable,  and  having  imbibed  in  his 
career  much  of  the  liberal  spirit  of  the  age,  he  found  himself 
in  a  state  of  no  small  perplexity  between  his  old  connections 
and  his  more  enlarged  propensities.  Still  he  was  chained 
down  by  the  former,  and  consequently  being  beaten  from  all 
his  positions,  he  was  continually  obliged  to  give  way,  but 
never  did  so  till  rather  too  late  for  his  own  credit  and  much 
too  late  for  the  interest  at  stake.  Notwithstanding,  there- 
fore, the  reputation  he  has  acquired,  the  hold  he  has  had  of 
office,  and  is  probably  destined  to  have  again,  his  political 
life  has  been  a  considerable  failure,  though  not  such  a  one 
as  to  render  it  more  probable  than  not  that  his  future  life 
will  be  a  failure  too.  He  has  hitherto  been  encumbered  with 
embarrassing  questions  and  an  unmanageable  party.  Time 
has  disposed  of  the  first,  and  he  is  divorced  from  the  last  ; 
if  his  great  experience  and  talents  have  a  fair  field  to  act 
upon,  he  may  yet,  in  spite  of  his  selfish  and  unamiable  charac- 
ter, be  a  distinguished  and  successful  Minister. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Appointment  of  Sir  Stratford  Canning  to  the  Russian  Embassy— Cause  of  the  Eefusnl- 
Slavery  in  the  West  Indies — The  Reformed  Parliament— Duke  of  Wellington's  View 
of  Affairs— The  Coercion  BUI— The  Privv  Council  Bill— Lord  Durham  made  an  Earl- 
Mr.  Stanley  Secretary  for  the  Colonies — The  Russians  go  to  the  Assistance  of  the  Porto 
— Lord  Goderich  has  the  Privy  Seal,  an  Earldom,  and  the  Garter — Embarrassments  of 
the  Government — Tho  Appeal  of  Drax  vs.  Grosvenor  at  the  Privy  Council — Hobhouse 
defeated  in  Westminster — Bill  for  Negro  Emancipation — The  Russians  on  the  Bos- 
porus— Mr.  Littleton  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland — Respect  shown  to  the  Duke  of 
Wellington — Moral  of  a  "Book  on  the  Derby"— The  Oaks — A  Betting  Incident— Ascot 
— Government  beaten  in  the  Lords  on  Foreign  Policy — Vote  of  Confidence  in  the 
Commons — Drax  vs.  Grosvenor  decided — Lord  Eldon's  Last  Judgment — His  Character 
— Duke  of  Wellington  as  Leader  of  Opposition — West  India  Affairs— Irish  Church  Bill 
— Appropriation  Clause — A  Fancy  Bazaar— The  King  writes  to  the  Bishops — Local 
Court  Bill— Mirabeau. 

February  ~iQth.- — Madame  de  Lieven  gave  me  an  account 
(the  day  before  yesterday)  of  the  quarrel  between  the  two 
Courts  about  Stratford  Canning.  When  the  present  Ministry 
came  in,  Nesselrode  wrote  to  Madame  de  Lieven  and  desired 
her  to  beg  that  Lord  Heytesbury  might  be  left  there — "  Con- 
servez-nous  Heytesbury."  She  asked  Palmerston  and  Lord 


1S83.]  DON'T   LET   IT   BE   CANNING.  147 

Grey,  and  they  both  promised  her  he  should  stay.  Some 
time  after  he  asked  to  be  recalled.  She  wrote  word  to  Nes- 
selrode,  and  told  him  that  either  Adair  or  Canning  would  suc- 
ceed him.  He  replied,  "  Don't  let  it  be  Canning;  he  is  a  most 
impracticable  man,  soupponneux,  pointillewx,  defiant;  "  that 
he  had  been  personally  uncivil  to  the  Emperor  when  he  was 
Grand  Duke ;  in  short  the  plain  truth  was  they  would  not  re- 
ceive him,  and  it  was  therefore  desirable  somebody,  anybody, 
else  should  be  sent.  She  told  this  to  Palmerston,  and  he  en- 
gaged that  Stratford  Canning  should  not  be  named.  Nothing 
more  was  done  till  some  time  ago,  when  to  her  astonishment 
Palmerston  told  her  that  he  was  going  to  send  Canning  to  St. 
Petersburg.  She  remonstrated,  urged  all  the  objections  of 
her  Court,  his  own  engagement,  but  in  vain;  the  discussions 
between  them  grew  bitter;  Palmerston  would  not  give  way, 
and  Canning  was  one  day,  to  her  horror,  gazetted.  As  might 
have  been  expected,  Nesselrode  positively  refused  to  receive 
him.  Durham,  who  in  the  mean  time  had  been  to  Russia  and 
bien  comble  with  civilities,  promised  that  Canning  should  not 
go  there,  trusting  he  had  sufficient  influence  to  prevent  it ; 
and  since  he  has  been  at  home  it  is  one"  of  the  things  he  has 
been  most  violent  and  bitter  about,  because  Palmerston  will 
not  retract  this  nomination,  and  he  has  the  mortification  of 
finding  in  this  instance  his  own  want  of  power.  However,  as 
there  have  been  no  discussions  on  it  lately,  the  Princess  still 
hopes  it  may  blow  over,  and  that  some  other  mission  may  be 
found  for  Canning.  At  all  events  it  appears  a  most  curious 
piece  of  diplomacy  to  insist  upon  thrusting  upon  a  Court  a 
man  personally  obnoxious  to  the  Sovereign  and  his  Minister, 
and  not  the  best  way  of  preserving  harmonious  relations  or 
obtaining  political  advantages.  She  says,  however  (and  with 
all  her  anger  she  is  no  bad  judge),  that  Palmerston  "  est  un 
tres-petit  esprit — lourd,  obstin6,"  etc.,  and  she  is  astonished 
how  Lady  C.  with  \\Qrfinesse  can  be  so  taken  with  him. 

Lady  Cowper  has  since  told  me  that  Madame  de  Lieven 
has  been  to  blame  in  all  this  business,  that  Palmerston  was 
provoked  with  her  interference,  that  her  temper  had  got  the 
better  of  her,  and  she  had  thought  to  carry  it  with  a  high 
hand,  having  been  used  to  have  her  own  way,  and  that  he 
had  thought  both  sJie  and  her  Court  wanted  to  be  taken  down 
a  peg;  that  she  had  told  Nesselrode  she  could  prevent  this 
appointment,  and,  what  had  done  more  harm  than  any  thing, 
she  had  appealed  to  Grey  against  Palraerston,  and  employed 


148  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XX. 

Durham  to  make  a  great  clamor  about  it.  All  this  made 
Palmerston  angry,  and  determined  him  to  punish  her,  who  he 
thought  had  meddled  more  than  she  ought,  and  had  made  the 
matter  personally  embarrassing  and  disagreeable  to  him. 

Last  night  Lord  Grey  introduced  his  coercive  measures 
in  an  excellent  speech,  though  there  are  some  people  who 
doubt  his  being  able  to  carry  them  through  the  House  of 
Commons.  If  he  can't,  he  goes  of  course ;  and  what  next  ? 
The  measures  are  sufficiently  strong,  it  must  be  owned — a 
consommb  of  insurrection-gagging  Acts,  suspension  of  Habeas 
Corpus,  martial  law,  and  one  or  two  other  little  hards  and 
sharps.1 

London,  February  22d. — Dined  yesterday  with  Fortunatus 
Dwarris,  who  was  counsel  to  the  Board  of  Health  ;  one  of 
those  dinners  that  people  in  that  class  of  society  put  them- 
selves in  an  agony  to  give,  and  generally  their  guests  in 
as  great  an  agony  to  partake  of.  There  were  Goulburn, 
Sergeant  ditto  and  his  wife,  Stephen,  etc.  Goulburn  men- 
tioned a  curious  thing  d  propos  of  slavery.  A  slave  ran  away 
from  his  estate  in  Jamaica  many  years  ago,  and  got  to 
England.  He  (the  man)  called  at  his  house  when  he  was  not 
at  home,  and  Goulburn  never  could  afterward  find  out  where 
he  was.  He  remained  in  England,  however,  gaining  his  live- 
lihood by  some  means,  till  after  some  years  he  returned  to 
Jamaica  and  to  the  estate,  and  desired  to  be  employed  as  a 
slave  again. 

Stephen,  who  is  one  of  the  great  apostles  of  emancipation, 
and  who  resigned  a  profession  worth  £3,000  a  year  at  the 
Bar  for  a  place  of  £1,500  in  the  Colonial  Office,  principally  in 
order  to  advance  that  object,  owned  that  he  had  never  known 
so  great  a  problem  nor  so  difficult  a  question  to  settle.  His 

1  [In  the  debate  on  the  Address,  O'Connell  had  denounced  the  coercive 
measures  announced  in  the  Speech  from  the  Throne  as  "  brutal,  bloody,  and 
unconstitutional."  But  the  state  of  Ireland  was  so  dreadful,  that  it  demanded 
and  justified  the  severest  remedies.  Lord  Grey  stated  in  the  House  of  Lords 
that,  between  January  1st  and  December  31st,  9,000  crimes  had  been  com- 
mitted :  homicides,  242 ;  robberies,  1,179 ;  burglaries,  401  •  burnings,  568,  and 
so  on.  The  Bill  gave  the  Lord-Lieutenant  power  to  proclaim  disturbed  dis- 
tricts, to  substitute  court-martials  for  the  ordinary  courts  of  justice,  to  prohibit 
meetings,  and  to  punish  the  distributors  of  seditious  papers.  Such  were  the 
powers  which  Lord  Wellesley  described  as  more  formidable  to  himself  than  to 
the  people  of  Ireland,  for  the  greater  part  of  them  were  never  exercised.  The 
Act  produced  the  desired  effect.  In  a  year  Ireland  was  pacified ;  and  the  aban- 
donment of  several  of  the  most  important  clauses  in  the  Act  (contrary  to  Lord 
Grey's  wishes)  was  the  cause  which  led  to  the  dissolution  of  the  Ministry  in 
the  month  of  June,  1834.] 


1833]  THE   SLAVERY   QUESTION.  149 

notion  is  that  compulsory  labor  may  be  substituted  for 
slavery,  and  in  some  colonies  (the  new  ones,  as  they  are 
called — Demerara,  etc.)  he  thinks  it  will  not  be  difficult ;  in 
Jamaica  he  is  doubtful,  and  admits  that  if  this  does  not 
answer  the  slaves  will  relapse  into  barbarism,  nor  is  he  at 
all  clear  that  any  disorders  and  evils  may  not  be  produced 
by  the  effect  of  desperation  on  one  side  and  disappointment 
on  the  other  ;  still  he  does  not  hesitate  to  go  on,  but  fully 
admitting  the  right  of  the  proprietors  to  ample  compensation, 
and  the  duty  incumbent  on  the  country  to  give  it.  If  the 
sentiments  of  justice  and  benevolence  with  which  he  is 
actuated  were  common  to  all  who  profess  the  same  opinions, 
or  if  the  same  sagacity  and  resource  which  he  possesses  were 
likely  to  be  applied  to  the  practical  operation  of  the  scheme, 
the  evils  which  are  dreaded  and  foreseen  might  be  mitigated 
and  avoided  ;  but  this  is  very  far  from,  the  case,  and  the 
oils  will,  in  all  probability,  more  than  overbalance  the  good 
which  humanity  aims  at  effecting,  nor  is  it  possible  to  view 
the  settlement  (as  it  is  called,  for  all  changes  are  settlements 
nowadays)  of  this  question  without  a  misgiving  that  it  will 
only  produce  some  other  great  topic  for  public  agitation, 
some  great  interest  to  be  overturned  or  mighty  change  to 
be  accomplished.  The  public  appetite  for  discussion  and 
legislation  has  been  whetted  and  is  insatiable  ;  the  millions 
of  orators  and  legislators  who  have  sprung  up  like  mushrooms 
all  over  the  kingdom,  the  bellowers,  the  chatterers,  the 
knaves,  and  the  dupes,  who  make  such  a  universal  hubbub, 
must  be  fed  with  fresh  victims  and  sacrifices.  The  Catholic 
question  was  speedily  followed  by  Reform  in  Parliament,  and 
this  has  opened  a  door  to  any  thing. 

In  the  mean  time  the  Reformed  Parliament  has  been 
sitting  for  a  fortnight  or  so,  and  begins  to  manifest  its 
character  and  prentensions.  The  first  thing  that  strikes  one 
is  its  inferiority  in  point  of  composition  to  preceding 
Houses  of  Commons,  and  the  presumption,  impertinence, 
and  self-sufficiency  of  the  new  members.  Formerly  new 
members  appeared  with  some  modesty  and  diffidence,  and 
with  some  appearance  of  respect  for  the  assembly  into  which 
they  were  admitted ;  these  fellows  behave  themselves  as  if 
they  had  taken  it  by  storm,  and  might  riot  in  all  the  insolence 
of  victory.  There  exists  no  party  but  that  of  the  Government ; 
the  Irish  act  in  a  body  under  O'Connell  to  the  number  of 
about  forty ;  the  Radicals  are  scattered  up  and  down  without 


150  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XX. 

a  leader,  numerous,  restless,  turbulent,  and  bold — Hume,  Cob- 
bett,  and  a  multitude  such  as  Roebuck,  Faithfull,  Buckingham, 
Major  Beauclerck,  etc.  (most  of  whom  have  totally  failed  in 
point  of  speaking) — bent  upon  doing  all  the  mischief  they  can 
and  incessantly  active  ;  the  Tories  without  a  head,  frightened, 
angry,  and  sulky ;  Peel  without  a  party,  prudent,  cautious, 
and  dexterous,  playing  a  deep  waiting  game  of  scrutiny  and 
observation.  The  feelings  of  these  various  elements  of  party, 
rather  than  parties,  may  be  thus  summed  up :  The  Radicals 
are  confident  and  sanguine  ;  the  Whigs  uneasy  ;  the  Tories 
desponding  ;  moderate  men,  who  belong  to  no  party,  but  sup- 
port Government,  serious,  and  not  without  alarm.  There  is, 
in  fact,  enough  to  justify  alarm,  for  the  Government  has  evi- 
dently no  power  over  the  House  of  Commons,  and  though  ib 
is  probable  that  they  will  scramble  through  the  session  with- 
out sustaining  any  serious  defeat,  or  being  reduced  to  the  ne- 
cessity of  any  great  sacrifice  or  compromise,  they  are  conscious 
of  their  own  want  of  authority  and  of  that  sort  of  command 
without  which  no  Government  has  been  hitherto  deemed 
secure.  The  evil  of  this  is  that  we  are  now  reduced  to  the 
alternative  of  Lord  Grey's  Government  or  none  at  all ;  and 
should  he  be  defeated  on  any  great  measure,  he  must  either 
abandon  the  country  to  its  fate,  or  consent  to  carry  on  the 
Government  upon  the  condition  of  a  virtual  transfer  of  the 
executive  power  to  the  House  of  Commons.  If  this  comes  to 
pass  the  game  is  up,  for  this  House,  like  animals  who  have 
once  tasted  blood,  if  it  ever  exercises  such  a  power  as  this, 
and  finds  a  Minister  consenting  to  hold  office  on  such  terms, 
will  never  rest  till  it  has  acquired  all  the  authority  of  the 
Long  Parliament  and  reduced  that  of  the  Crown  to  a  mere 
cipher.  It  is  curious,  by-the-by,  that  the  example  of  the 
Long  Parliament  in  a  trivial  matter  has  just  been  adopted,  in 
the  sittings  of  the  House  at  twelve  o'clock  for  the  hearing  of 
petitions. 

February  27th. — Laid  up  ever  since  that  dinner  at  Dwar- 
ris's  with  the  gout.  Frederick  Fitzclarence  has  been  com- 
pelled to  resign  the  situation  at  the  Tower  which  the  King 
gave  him ;  they  found  it  very  probable  that  the  House  of 
Commons  would  refuse  to  vote  the  pay  of  it — a  trifle  in  itself, 
but  indicative  of  the  spirit  of  the  times  and  the  total  want  of 
consideration  for  the  King.  O'Connell  made  a  speech  of  such 
violence  at  the  Trades  Union  the  other  day — calling  the 
House  of  Commons  six  hundred  scoundrels — that  there  was  a 


1833.]  THE   "TIMES"  ARTICLE.  151 

great  deal  of  talk  about  taking  it  up  in  Parliament  and  pro- 
posing his  expulsion,  which,  however,  they  have  not  had  the 
folly  to  do.  The  Irish  Bill  was  to  come  on  last  night.  The 
sense  of  insecurity  and  uneasiness  evidently  increases ;  the 
Government  assumes  a  high  tone,  but  is  not  at  all  certain  of 
its  ability  to  pass  the  Coercive  Bills  unaltered,  and  yesterday 
there  appeared  an  article  in  the  Times  in  a  style  of  lofty  re- 
proof and  severe  admonition,  which  was  no  doubt  as  appalling 
as  it  was  meant  to  be.  This  article  made  what  is  called  a 
great  sensation ;  always  struggling,  as  this  paper  does,  to 
take  the  lead  of  public  opinion  and  watching  all  its  turns  and. 
shifts  with  perpetual  anxiety,  it  is  at  once  regarded  as  un- 
doubted evidence  of  its  direction  and  dreaded  for  the  influence 
which  its  powerful  writing  and  extensive  sale  have  placed  in 
its  hands.  It  is  no  small  homage  to  the  power  of  the  press  to 
see  that  an  article  like  this  makes  as  much  noise  as  the  dec- 
laration of  a  powerful  Minister  or  a  leader  of  Opposition 
could  do  in  either  House  of  Parliament. 

Yesterday  morning  the  Duke  of  Wellington  came  here 
upon  some  private  business,  after  discussing  which  he  entered 
upon  the  state  of  the  country.  I  told  him  my  view  of  the 
condition  of  the  Government  and  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  he  said :  "  You  have  hit  the  two  points  that  I  have 
myself  always  felt  so  strongly  about.  I  told  Lord  Grey  so 
long  ago,  and  asked  him  at  the  time  how  he  expected  to  be 
able  to  carry  on  the  Government  of  the  country,  to  which  he 
never  could  give  any  answer,  except  that  it  would  all  do  very 
well.  However,  things  are  not  a  bit  worse  than  I  always 
thought  they  would  be.  As  they  are,  I  mean  to  support  the 
Government — support  them  in  every  way.  The  first  thing  I 
have  to  look  to  is  to  keep  my  house  over  my  head,  and  the 
alternative  is  between  this  Government  and  none  at  all.  I 
am  therefore  for  supporting  the  Government,  but  then  there 
is  so  much  passion,  and  prejudice,  and  folly,  and  vindictive 
feeling,  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  get  others  to  do  the  same. 
I  hear  Peel  had  only  fifty  people  with  him  the  other  night 
on  some  question,  though  they  say  that  there  are  150  of  that 
party  in  the  House  of  Commons."  He  thinks  as  ill  of  the 
whole  thing  as  possible.  [While  I  am  writing  Poodle  Byng 
is  come  in,  who  tells  me  what  happened  last  night.  Althorp 
made  a  very  bad  speech  and  a  wretched  statement ;  other 
people  spoke,  pert  and  disagreeable,  and  the  debate  looked  ill 
till  Stanley  rose  and  made  one  of  the  finest  speeches  that 


[52  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XX. 

were  ever  heard,  pounding  O'Connell  to  dust  and  attacking 
him  for  his  "  six  hundred  scoundrels,"  from  which  he  endeav- 
ored to  escape  by  a  miserable  and  abortive  explanation. 
Stanley  seems  to  have  set  the  whole  thing  to  rights,  like  a 
great  man.] 

I  told  the  Duke  what  Macaulay  had  said  to  Denison  : 
"  that  if  he  had  had  to  legislate,  he  would,  instead  of  this  Bill, 
have  suspended  the  laws  for  five  years  in  Ireland,  given  the 
Lord-Lieutenant's  proclamation  the  force  of  law,  and  got  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  to  go  there."  He  seemed  very  well 
pleased  at  this,  and  said:  "  Well,  that  is  the  way  I  governed 
the  provinces  on  the  Garonne  in  the  south  of  France.  I  de- 
sired the  mayors  to  go  on  administering  the  law  of  the  land, 
and  when  they  asked  me  in  whose  name  criminal  suits  should 
be  carried  on  (which  were  ordinarily  in  the  name  of  the  Em- 
peror), and  if  they  should  be  in  the  name  of  the  King,  I  said 
no,  that  we  were  treating  with  the  Emperor  at  Chatillon,  and 
if  they  put  forth  the  King  they  would  be  in  a  scrape ;  neither 
should  it  be  in  the  Emperor's  name,  because  we  did  not  ac- 
knowledge him,  but  in  that  of  the  Allied  Powers."  In  this  I 
think  he  was  wrong  (par  parenth&se),  for  Napoleon  was  ac- 
knowledged by  all  the  Powers  but  us,  and  we  were  treating 
with  him,  and  if  he  permitted  the  civil  authorities  to  admin- 
ister the  law  as  usual,  he  should  have  allowed  them  to  ad- 
minister it  in  the  usual  legal  form.  Their  civil  administra- 
tion could  not  affect  any  political  questions  in  the  slightest 
degree. 

March  &th. — Sir  Thomas  Hardy  told  my  brother  he  thought 
the  King  would  certainly  go  mad  ;  he  was  so  excitable,  loath- 
ing his  Ministers,  particularly  Graham,  and  dying  to  go  to 
war.  He  has  some  of  the  cunning  of  madmen,  who  fawn  upon 
their  keepers  when  looked  at  by  them,  and  grin  at  them  and 
shake  their  fists  when  their  backs  are  turned  ;  so  he  is  extrav- 
agantly civil  when  his  Ministers  are  with  him,  and  exhibits 
every  mark  of  aversion  when  they  are  away.  Peel  made  an 
admirable  speech  on  Friday  night;  they  expect  a  great  ma- 
jority. 

March  13th. — The  second  reading  of  the  Coercive  Bill  has 
passed  by  a  great  majority  after  a  dull  debate,  and  the  other 
night  Althorp  deeply  offended  Peel  and  the  Tories  by  hurry- 
ing on  the  Church  Reform  Bill.  It  was  to  be  printed  one  day, 
and  the  second  reading  taken  two  days  after.  They  asked  a 
delay  of  four  or  five  days,  and  Althorp  refused.  He  did  very 


1833.]  BROUGHAM'S  PRIVY   COUNCIL  BILL.  153 

wrong  ;  he  is  either  bullied  or  cajoled  into  almost  any  thing 
the  Radicals  want  of  this  sort,  but  he  is  stout  against  the 
Tories.  The  delay  is  required  by  decency,  but  it  ought  to 
have  been  enough  that  Peel  and  the  others  asked  it  for  him 
to  concede  it.  He  ought  to  soften  the  asperities  which  must 
long  survive  the  battles  of  last  year  as  much  as  he  can,  and 
avoid  shocking  what  he  may  consider  the  prejudices  of  the 
vanquished  party.  It  was  worse  than  impolitic  ;  it  was 
stupid  and  uncourteous,  and  missing  an  opportunity  of 
being  gracious  which  he  ought  to  have  seized. 

I  have  been  again  worried  with  a  new  edition  of 
Brougham's  Privy  Council  Bill,1  and  the  difficulty  of  getting 
Lord  Lansdowne  to  do  any  thing.  This  is  the  way  Brougham 
goes  to  work :  He  resolves  to  alter ;  he  does  not  condescend 
to  communicate  with  the  Privy  Council,  or  to  consult  those 
who  are  conversant  with  its  practice,  or  who  have  been  in  the 
habit  of  administering  justice  there ;  he  has  not  time  to  think 
of  it  himself;  he  tosses  to  one  of  his  numerous  employes  (for 
he  has  people  without  end  working  for  him)  his  rough  notion, 
and  tells  him  to  put  it  into  shape ;  the  satellite  goes  to  work, 
always  keeping  in  view  the  increase  of  the  dignity,  authority, 
and  patronage  of  the  Chancellor,  and  careless  of  the  Council, 
the  King,  and  the  usages  of  the  Constitution.  What  is  called 
the  Sill  is  then,  for  form's  sake,  handed  over  to  the  Lord 
President  (Lord  Lansdowne),  with  injunctions  to  let  nobody 
see  it,  as  if  he  was  conspiring  against  the  Council,  secure  that 
if  he  meets  with  no  resistance  but  what  is  engendered  by 
Lord  Lansdowne's  opposition  he  may  enact  any  thing  he 
pleases.  Lord  Lansdowne  sends  it  to  me  (a  long  Act  of  Par- 
liament), with  a  request  that  I  will  return  it  " by  the  bearer" 
with  any  remarks  I  may  have  to  make  on  it.  The  end  is  that  I 
am  left,  quantum  impar,  to  fight  this  with  the  Chancellor. 

March  15th. — Ministerial  changes  are  going  on  ;  Durham 
is  out,  and  to  be  made  an  earl.  Yesterday  his  elevation  was 
known,  and  it  is  amusing  enough  that  the  same  day  an  inci- 
dent should  have  occurred  in  the  House  of  Lords  exhibiting 

1  [This  was  the  Bill  for  the  establishment  of  a  Judicial  Committee  of  the 
Privy  Council,  which  eventually  became  the  Act  3  and  4,  Will.  IV.,  cap.  41, 
and  definitively  created  that  tribunal.  Mr.  Greville  objected  to  several  of  the 
provisions  of  tne  measure,  because  he  regarded  them  as  an  unnecessary  inter- 
ference of  Parliament  with  the  authority  of  the  Sovereign  in  his  Council.  The 
Sovereign  might  undoubtedly  have  created  a  Committee  of  the  judicial  mem- 
bers of  the  Privy  Council ;  but  the  Bill  went  further,  and,  by  extending  and 
denning  the  power  of  the  Judicial  Committee  as  a  Court  of  Appeal,  it  undoubt- 
edly proved  a  very  useful  and  important  measure.] 


154  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAT.  XX. 

in  a  good  light  the  worthiness  of  the  subject,  and  how  much 
he  merits  it  at  the  hands  of  Lord  Grey. 

March  %Qth. — Lord  Goderich  is  Privy  Seal,1  and  Stanley 
Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  after  much  trouble.  Last  year  a 
positive  pledge  was  given  to  Stanley  that  he  should  not  meet 
Parliament  again  but  as  Secretary  of  State.  It  was  not, 
however,  specified  who  was  to  make  room  for  him.  The 
Cabinet  settled  that  it  should  be  Goderich,  when  Durham 
went  out,  and  Palmerston  was  charged  with  the  office  of 
breaking  it  to  Goderich  with  the  offer  of  an  earldom  by  way 
of  gilding  the  pill,  but  Goderich  would  not  hear  of  it,  said  it 
Avould  look  like  running  away  from  the  Slave  question,  and, 
in  short,  flatly  refused.  Stanley  threatened  to  resign  if  he 
was  not  promoted,  and  in  this  dilemma  the  Duke  of  Richmond 
(who  was  going  to  Windsor)  persuaded  Lord  Grey  to  let  him 
lay  the  case  before  the  King,  and  inform  him  that  if  this  ar- 
rangement was  not  made  the  Government  must  be  broken  up. 
He  did  so,  and  the  King  acquiesced,  and  at  the  same  time  a 
similar  representation  was  made  to  Goderich,  who  after  a 
desperate  resistance  knocked  under,  and  said  that  if  it  must  be 
so  he  would  yield,  but  only  to  the  King's  express  command. 

March  30th. — Saw  Madame  de  Lieven  yesterday,  who 
told  me  the  story  of  the  late  business  at  St.  Petersburg.  The 
Sultan  after  the  battle  of  Koniah  applied  to  the  Emperor  of 
Russia  for  succor,  who  ordered  twelve  sail-of-the-line  and 
30,000  men  to  go  to  the  protection  of  Constantinople.  At 
the  same  time  General  Mouravieff  was  sent  to  Constantinople, 
with  orders  to  proceed  to  Alexandria  and  inform  the  Pasha 
that  the  Emperor  could  only  look  upon  him  as  a  rebel,  that 
he  would  not  suffer  the  Ottoman  Empire  to  be  overturned, 
and  that  if  Ibrahim  advanced  "  il  aurait  affaire  a  1'Empereur 
de  Russie."  Orders  were  accordingly  sent  to  Ibrahim  to 
suspend  his  operations,  and  Mouravieff  returned  to  Constan- 
tinople. Upon  the  demand  for  succor  by  the  Sultan,  and 
the  Emperor's  compliance  with  it,  notification  was  made 
to  all  the  Courts,  and  instructions  were  given  to  the 
Russian  commanders  to  retire  as  soon  as  the  Sultan  should 
have  no  further  occasion  for  their  aid.  So  satisfactory  was 
this  that  Lord  Grey  expressed  the  greatest  anxiety  that  the 

1  [Down  to  this  time  Lord  Goderich  had  been  Secretary  for  the  Colonial 
Department  in  Lord  Grey's  Government.] 


1833.]  THE   RUSSIAN   FLEET.  155 

Russian  armament  should  arrive  in  time  to  arrest  the  prog- 
ress of  the  Egyptians.  They  did  arrive — at  least  the  fleet 
did — and  dropped  anchor  under  the  Seraglio.  At  this  junc- 
ture arrived  Admiral  Roussin  in  a  ship-of-war,  and  as 
Embassador  of  France.  He  immediately  informed  the  Sul- 
tan that  the  interposition  of  Russia  was  superfluous,  that 
he  would  undertake  to  conclude  a  treaty,  and  to  answer  for 
the  acquiescence  of  the  Pasha,  and  he  sent  a  project,  one 
article  of  which  was  that  the  Russian  fleet  should  instantly 
withdraw.  To  this  proposition  the  Sultan  acceded,  and 
without  waiting  for  the  Pasha's  confirmation,  he  notified  to 
the  Russian  Embassador  that  he  had  no  longer  any  wish 
for  the  presence  of  the  Russian  fleet,  and  they  accordingly 
weighed  anchor  and  sailed  away.  This  is  all  that  is  known 
of  the  transaction,  but  Madame  de  Lieven  was  loud  and  vehe- 
ment about  the  insolence  of  Roussin ;  she  said  the  Emperor 
would  demand  "  une  satisfaction  eclatante  " — "  le  rappel  et  le 
d^saveu  de  1'amiral  Roussin,"  and  that  if  this  should  be  re- 
fused, the  Russian  Embassador  would  be  ordered  to  quit  Paris. 
She  waits  with  great  anxiety  to  see  the  end  of  the  business, 
for  on  it  appears  to  depend  the  question  of  peace  or  war 
with  France.  She  said  that  the  day  before  Namik  went  away 
intelligence  of  this  event  arrived,  which  Palmerston  commu- 
nicated to  him.  The  Turk  heard  it  very  quietly,  and  then 
only  said,  "  Et  ou  6tait  1'Angleterre  dans  tout  ceci  ?  " 

I  have  heard  to-night  the  Goderich  version  of  his  late 
translation.  He  had  agreed  to  remain  in  the  Cabinet  with- 
out an  office,  but  Lord  Grey  insisted  on  his  taking  the  Privy 
Seal,  and  threatened  to  resign  if  he  did  not ;  he  was  at 
last  bullied  into  acquiescence,  and  when  he  had  his  audience 
of  the  King,  his  Majesty  offered  him  any  thing  he  had  to 
give.  He  said  he  had  made  the  sacrifice  to  please  and  serve 
him,  and  would  take  nothing.  An  earldom — he  refused ; 
the  Bath — ditto  ;  the  Garter — that  he  said  he  would  take. 
It  was  then  discovered  that  he  was  not  of  rank  sufficient, 
when  he  said  he  would  take  the  earldom  in  order  to  qualify 
himself  for  the  Garter,  and  so  it  stands.  There  is  no  Garter 
vacant,  and  one  supernumerary  already,  and  Castlereagh 
and  Lord  North,  viscounts,  and  Sir  Robert  Walpole  (all 
Commoners)  had  blue  ribbons  ! 

London,  April  28th. — Came  to  town  last  night  from  New- 
market, and  the  intervening  week  at  Buckenham.  Nothing 
but  racing  and  hawking  ;  a  wretched  life — that  is,  a  life  ot 


J56  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XX. 

amusement,  but  very  unprofitable  and  discreditable  to  any- 
body who  can  do  better  things.  Of  politics  I  know  nothing 
during  this  interval,  but  on  coming  to  town  find  all  in  con- 
fusion, and  everybody  gaping  for  "  what  next."  Government 
was  beaten  on  the  Malt  Tax,  and  Lord  Grey  proposed  to  re- 
sign ;  the  Tories  are  glad  that  the  Government  is  embarrassed, 
no  matter  how,  the  supporters  sorry  and  repentant,  so  that 
it  is  very  clear  the  matter  will  be  patched  up  ;  they  won't 
budge,  and  will  probably  get  more  regular  support  for  the 
future.  Perhaps  Althorp  will  go,  but  where  to  find  a 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  will  be  the  difficulty.  Poulett 
Thomson  wants  it,  but  they  will  not  dare  commit  the  finances 
of  the  country  to  him,  so  we  go  scrambling  on,  "  clu  jour  la 
journee."  Nobody  knows  what  is  to  happen  next — no  con- 
fidence, no  security,  great  talk  of  a  property  tax,  to  which, 
I  suppose,  after  wriggling  about,  we  shall  at  last  come. 

May  2d. — The  Government  affair  is  patched  up,  and 
nobody  goes  but  Hobhouse,1  who  thought  fit  to  resign  both 
his  seat  in  Parliament  and  his  office,  thereby  creating  another 
great  embarrassment,  which  can  only  be  removed  by  his 
reelection  and  reappointment,  and  then,  what  a  farce  ! 

There  were  two  great  majorities  in  the  House  of  Commons 
the  night  before  last.  The  King  was  all  graciousness  and 
favor  to  Lord  Grey,  and  so  they  are  set  up  again,  and  fancy 
themselves  stronger  than  before.  But  although  everybody 
(except  the  fools)  wished  them  to  be  reestablished,  it  was 
evident  that  this  was  only  because,  at  this  moment,  the  time 
is  not  ripe  for  a  change,  for  they  inspired  no  interest  either 
individually  or  collectively.  It  was  easy  to  see  that  the 
Government  has  no  consideration,  and  that  people  are 
getting  tired  of  their  blunders  and  embarrassments,  and  begin 
to  turn  their  eyes  to  those  who  are  more  capable,  and  know 
something  of  the  business  of  Government — to  Peel  and  to 
Stanley,  for  the  former,  in  spite  of  his  cold,  calculating  selfish- 
ness and  duplicity,  is  the  ablest  man  there  is,  and  we  must 
take  what  we  can  get,  and  accept  services  without  troubling 
ourselves  about  the  motives  of  those  who  supply  them.  It 
must  come  to  this  conclusion  unless  the  reign  of  Radicalism 
and  the  authority  of  the  Humes  "  et  hoc  genus  omne  "  is  to  be 

[Sir  John  HoTphouse,  who  had  consented  to  take  the  Irish  Secretaryship  a 


April,  1871  (No.  272),  an  account  of  this  transaction.] 


1833.]  THE   DRAX  LUNACY   CASE.  157 

substituted.  That  the  present  Government  loses  ground  every 
day  is  perfectly  clear,  and  at  the  same  time  that  the  fruits  of 
the  Reform  Bill  become  more  lamentably  apparent.  The  scrape 
Government  lately  got  into  was  owing  partly  to  the  votes 
that  people  were  obliged  to  give  to  curry  favor  with  their  con- 
stituents, and  partly  to  negligence  and  carelessness  in  whip- 
ping in.  Hobhouse's  resignation  is  on  account  of  his  pledges, 
and  because  he  is  forced  to  pledge  himself  on  the  hustings  he 
finds  himself  placed  in  a  situation  which  compels  him  to  save 
his  honor  and  consistency  by  embarrassing  the  public  service 
to  the  greatest  degree  at  a  very  critical  time.  Men  go  on 
asking  one  another  how  is  it  possible  the  country  can  be  gov- 
erned in  this  manner,  and  nobody  can  reply. 

Since  I  have  been  out  of  town  the  appeal  against  the  Chan- 
cellor's judgment  in  the  Drax  (lunacy)  case  has  been  heard  at 
the  Privy  Council,  and  will  be  finally  determined  on  Saturday.1 
Two  years  have  nearly  elapsed  since  that  case  was  lodged, 
and  the  Chancellor  has  always  found  pretexts  for  getting  the 
hearing  postponed  ;  at  length  the  parties  became  so  clamorous 
that  it  was  necessary  to  fix  a  day.  He  then  endeavored  to 
pack  a  committee,  and  spoke  to  Lord  Lansdowne  about  sum- 
moning Lord  Plunket,  Lord  Lyndhurst,  and  the  Vice-Chancel- 
lor, but  Leach,  who  hates  Brougham,  and  is  particularly  net- 
tled at  his  having  reversed  some  of  his  judgments,  bestirred 
himself,  and  represented  to  Lord  Lansdowne  the  absolute 
necessity  (in  a  case  of  such  consequence)  of  having  all  the 
ex-Chancellors  to  hear  it.  Plunket  was  gone  to  Ireland,  so 
the  Committee  consisted  of  the  Lord  President,  the  Chancel- 
lor, Vice-Chancellor,  Master  of  the  Rolls,  Lords  Eldon,  Lynd- 
hurst, and  Manners.  They  say  the  argument  was  very  able — 
Sugden  in  support  of  the  Chancellor's  judgment,  and  Pern ber- 
ton  against  it ;  they  expect  it  will  be  reversed.  Leach,  fool- 
ishly enough,  by  question  and  observation,  exhibited  a  strong 

1  [An  appeal  lies  to  the  King  in  Council  from  orders  of  the  Lord  Chancellor 
m  lunacy,  but  there  are  very  few  examples  of  the  prosecution  of  appeals  of  this 
nature.  This  case  of  Drax  vs.  Grosvenor,  which  is  reported  in  "  Knapp's  Privy 
Council  Cases,"  was  therefore  one  of  great  pecularity.  The  Bill  constitutin*^ 
the  Judicial  Committee  had  not  at  this  time  become  law ;  this  appeal  was  there- 
fore heard  by  a  Committee  of  the  Lords  of  the  Council,  to  which  any  member 
of  the  Privy  Council  might  be  summoned.  Care  was  taken  that  the  highest 
legal  authorities  should  be  present.  It  was  the  last  time  Lord  Eldon  sat  in  a 
court  of  law.  Lord  Brougham,  the  Chancellor,  sat  on  the  Committee,  although 
the  appeal  was  brought  from  an  order  made  by  himself:  this  practice  had  not 
been  uncommon  in  the  House  of  Lords,  but  it  had  not  been  the  practice  of  thu 
1'rivy  Council,  where  indeed  the  case  could  seldom  arise.] 


158  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [Ciur.  XX. 

bias  against  the  Chancellor,  who  nevxr  said  a  word,  and  ap- 
peared very  calm  and  easy,  but  with  rage  in  his  heart,  for  he 
was  indignant  at  these  Lords  having  been  summoned  (as  his 
secretary  told  Lennard  J),  and  said  "  he  was  sure  it  was  all 
Leach's  doing."  What  a  man  !  how  wonderful !  how  despi- 
cable, carrying  into  the  administration  of  justice  the  petty  van- 
ity, personal  jealousy  and  pique,  and  shuffling  arts  that  would 
reflect  ridicule  and  odium  on  a  silly  woman  of  fashion.  He 
has  smuggled  his  Privy  Council  Bill  through  the  House  of 
Lords  without  the  slighest  notice  or  remark. 

May  16th. — On  coming  to  town  found  the  Westminster 
election  just  over,  and  Evans  returned.  They  would  not  hear 
Hobhouse,  and  pelted  him  and  his  friends.  No  Secretary  for 
Ireland  is  to  be  found,  for  the  man  must  be  competent,  and 
sure  of  reelection.  Few  are  the  first,  and  none  the  last. 
Hobhouse  is  generally  censured  for  having  put  Government 
in  this  great  difficulty,  but  the  Tories  see  it  all  with  a  sort  of 
grim  satisfaction  and  point  at  it  as  a  happy  illustration  of  the 
benefits  of  the  Reform  Bill.  I  point,  too,  but  I  don't  rejoice. 

At  the  same  time  with  Hobhouse's  defeat  came  forth 
Stanley's  plan  for  slave  emancipation,  which  produced  rage 
and  fury  among  both  West  Indians  and  Saints,  being  too 
much  for  the  former  and  not  enough  for  the  latter,  and  both 
announced  their  opposition  to  it.  Practical  men  declare 
that  it  is  impossible  to  carry  it  into  effect,  and  that  the 
details  are  unmanageable.  Even  the  Government  adherents 
do  not  pretend  that  it  is  a  good  and  safe  measure,  but  the 
best  that  could  be  hit  off  under  the  circumstances;  these 
circumstances  being  the  old  motive,  "the  people  will  have  it." 
The  night  before  last  Stanley  developed  his  plan  in  the 
House  of  Commons  in  a  speech  of  three  hours,  which  was 
very  eloquent,  but  rather  disappointing.  He  handled  the 
preliminary  topics  of  horrors  of  slavery  and  colonial  obstinacy 
and  misconduct  with  all  the  vigor  and  success  that  might 
have  been  expected,  but  when  he  came  to  his  measure  he 
failed  to  show  how  it  was  to  be  put  in  operation  and  to  work. 
The  peroration  and  eulogy  on  Wilberforce  were  very  brilliant. 
Howick  had  previously  announced  his  intention  of  opposing 
Stanley,  and  accordingly  he  did  so  in  a  speech  of  consider- 
able vehemence  which  lasted  two  hours.  He  was  not,  how- 
ever, well  received  ;  his  father  and  mother  had  in  vain 
endeavored  to  divert  him  from  his  resolution  ;  but  though 

J  [John  Barrett  Lennard,  Esq.,  was  Chief  Clerk  of  the  Council  Office.] 


183'j.]  A   SECRETARY  FOR  IRELA.ND.  159 

they  say  his  speech  was  clever,  he  has  damaged  himself  by  it. 
His  plan  is  immediate  emancipation.1 

AVhile  such  is  the  state  of  things  here — enormous  interests 
under  discussion,  great  disquietude  and  alarm,  no  feeling  of 
security,  no  confidence  in  the  Government,  and  a  Parliament 
that  inspires  fear  rather  than  hope — matters  abroad  seem  to 
be  no  better  managed  than  they  are  at  home.  It  is  remark- 
able that  the  business  in  the  East  has  escaped  with  so  little, 
animadversion,  for  there  never  was  a  fairer  object  of  attack. 
While  France  has  been  vaporing,  and  we  have  been  doing 
nothing  at  all,  Russia  has  established  her  own  influence  in 
Turkey,  and  made  herself  virtually  mistress  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire.  At  a  time  when  our  interests  required  that  we 
should  be  well  represented,  and  powerfully  supported,  we 
had  neither  an  Embassador  nor  a  fleet  in  the  Mediterranean; 
and  because  Lord  Ponsonby  is  Lord  Grey's  brother-in-law 
he  has  been  able  with  impunity  to  dawdle  on  months  after 
months  at  Naples  for  his  pleasure,  and  leave  affairs  at  Constan- 
tinople to  be  managed  or  mismanaged  by  a  Charge1  d' Affaires 
who  is  altogether  incompetent. 

May  19th. — They  have  found  a  Secretary  for  Ireland  in 
the  person  of  Littleton,*  which  shows  to  what  shifts  they 
are  put.  He  is  rich,  which  is  his  only  qualification,  being 
neither  very  able  nor  very  popular.  The  West  India  ques- 
tion is  postponed.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  told  me  that  he 
thought  it  would  pass  away  for  this  time,  and  that  all  parties 
would  be  convinced  of  the  impracticability  of  any  of  the  plans 
now  mooted.  I  said  that  nothing  could  do  away  the  mis- 
chief that  had  been  done  by  broaching  it.  He  thought  "  the 
mischief  might  be  avoided;"  but  then  these  people  do  noth- 
ing to  avoid  any  mischief.  I  was  marvelously  struck  (we  rode 
together  through  St.  James's  Park)  with  the  profound  re- 

1  [The  result  proved  that  Lord  Howick  was  right.  The  apprenticeship  sys- 
tem proposed  by  Lord  Stanley  was  carried,  but  failed  in  execution,  and  was 
eventually  abandoned.] 

» [The  Rt.  Hon.  E.  J.  Littleton,  M.  P.  for  Staffordshire,  and  afterward  first 
Lord  Uatherton. 

It  was  Lord  John  Russell  who  advised  Lord  Grey  to  make  Littleton  Irish 
Secretary.  He  told  me  so  in  May,  1871,  but  added,  "  I  think  I  made  a  mis- 
take." The  appointment  was  wholly  unsolicited  and  unexpected  by  Mr.  Lit- 
tleton himself,  who  happened  to  be  laid  up  at  the  time  by  an  accident.  On  the 
receipt  of  the  letter  from  Lord  Grey  offering  him  the  Secretaryship  of  Ireland, 
and  requesting  him  to  take  it,  Mr.  Littleton  consulted  Mr.  Fazakerly,  who  was 
of  opinion  that  he  ought  to  accept  the  offer.  This  therefore  he  did,  though  not. 
as  I  know  from  his  own  journals,  without  great  diffidence  and  hesitation ;  and 
ho  intimated  to  Lord  Grey  that  he  would  only  retain  his  office  until  some  other 
mnn  could  be  found  to  accept  it.] 


[60  REIGN  OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XX. 

spect  with  which  the  Duke  was  treated,  everybody  we  met 
taking  off  their  hats  to  him,  everybody  in  the  park  rising  as 
he  went  by,  and  every  appearance  of  his  inspiring  great 
reverence.  I  like  this  symptom,  and  it  is  the  more  remark- 
able because  it  is  not  popularity,  but  a  much  higher  feeling 
toward  him.  He  has  forfeited  his  popularity  more  than 
once;  he  has  taken  a  line  in  politics  directly  counter  to  the 
popular  bias ;  but  though  in  moments  of  excitement  he  is 
attacked  and  vilified  (and  his  broken  windows,  which  I  wish 
he  would  mend,  still  preserve  a  record  of  the  violence  of  the 
mob),  when  the  excitement  subsides  there  is  always  a  return- 
ing sentiment  of  admiration  and  respect  for  him,  kept  alive 
by  the  recollection  of  his  splendid  actions,  such  as  no  one 
else  ever  inspired.  Much,  too,  as  I  have  regretted  and  cen- 
sured the  enormous  errors  of  his  political  career  (at  times),  I 
believe  that  this  sentiment  is  in  a  great  degree  produced  by 
the  justice  which  is  done  to  his  political  character,  sometimes 
mistaken,  but  always  high-minded  and  patriotic,  and  never 
mean,  false,  or  selfish.  If  he  has  aimed  at  power,  and  over- 
rated his  own  capacity  for  wielding  it,  it  has  been  with  the 
purest  intentions  and  the  most  conscientious  views.  I  believe 
firmly  that  no  man  had  ever  at  heart  to  a  greater  degree  the 
honor  and  glory  of  his  country ;  and  hereafter,  when  justice 
will  be  done  to  his  memory,  and  his  character  and  conduct 
be  scanned  with  impartial  eyes,  if  his  capacity  for  govern- 
ment appears  unequal  to  the  exigencies  of  the  times  in  which 
he  was  placed  at  the  head  of  affairs,  the  purity  of  his  motives 
and  the  noble  character  of  his  ambition  will  be  amply  ac- 
knowledged. 

The  Duke  of  Orleans  is  here,  and  very  well  received  by 
the  Court  and  the  world.  He  is  good-looking,  dull,  has  good 
manners  and  little  conversation,  goes  everywhere,  and  dances 
all  night.  At  the  ball  at  Court  the  Queen  waltzed  with  the 
two  Dukes  of  Orleans  and  Brunswick. 

Peel  compelled  old  Cobbett  to  bring  on  his  motion  forget- 
ting him  erased  from  the  Privy  Council,  which  Cobbett  wished 
to  shirk  from.  He  gave  him  a  terrible  dressing,  and  it  all 
went  off  for  Peel  in  the  most  flattering  way.  He  gains  every 
day  more  authority-  and  influence  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
It  must  end  in  Peel  and  Stanley,  unless  every  thing  ends. 

May  27#A. — All  last  week  at  Epsom,  and  now,  thank  God, 
these  races  are  over.  I  have  had  all  the  trouble  and  excite- 
ment and  worry,  and  have  neither  won  nor  lost;  nothing  but 


1833.]  LCRD  STANLEY  AT  HOME.  161 

the  hope  of  gain  would  induce  me  to  go  through  this  demor- 
alizing drudgery,  which  I  am  conscious  reduces  me  to  the 
level  of  all  that  is  most  disreputable  and  despicable,  for  my 
thoughts  are  eternally  absorbed  by  it.  Jockeys,  trainers,  and 
blacklegs,  are  my  companions,  and  it  is  like  dram-drinking; 
having  once  entered  upon  it  I  cannot  leave  it  off,  though  I  am 
disgusted  with  the  occupation  all  the  time.  Let  no  man  who 
lias  no  need,  who  is  not  in  danger  of  losing  all  he  has,  and 
is  not  obliged  to  grasp  at  every  chance,  make  a  book  on  the 
Derby.  While  the  fever  it  excites  is  raging,  and  the  odds 
are  varying,  I  can  neither  read,  nor  write,  nor  occupy  myself 
with  any  thing  else.  I  went  to  the  Oaks  on.  Wednesday, 
where  Lord  Stanley  kept  house  for  the  first,  and  probably  (as 
the  house  is  for  sale)  for  the  last  time.  It  is  a  very  agreeable 
place,  with  an  odd  sort  of  house  built  at  different  times  and 
by  different  people ;  but  the  outside  is  covered  with  ivy  and 
creepers,  which  is  pretty,  and  there  are  two  good  living-rooms 
in  it.  Besides  this,  there  is  an  abundance  of  grass  and  shade ; 
it  has  been  for  thirty  or  forty  years  the  resort  of  all  our  old 
jockeys,  and  is  now  occupied  by  the  sporting  portion  of  the 
Government.  We  had  Lord  Grey  and  his  daughter,  Duke  and 
Duchess  of  Richmond,  Lord  and  Lady  Errol,  Al thorp,  Gra- 
ham, Uxbridge,  Charles  Grey,  Duke  of  Grafton,  Lichfield,  and 
Stanley's  brothers.  It  passed  off  very  well — racing  all  the 
morning,  an  excellent  dinner,  and  whist  and  blind  hookey  in 
the  evening.  It  was  curious  to  see  Stanley.  Who  would 
believe  they  beheld  the  orator  and  statesman,  only  second,  if 
second,  to  Peel  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  on  whom  the 
destiny  of  the  country  perhaps  depends  ?  There  he  was  as 
if  he  had  no  thoughts  but  for  the  turf,  full  of  the  horses, 
interest  in  the  lottery,  eager,  blunt,  noisy,  good-humored,  "has 
meditans  nugas  et  tottts  in  illis ;"  at  night  equally  devoted  to 
the  play,  as  if  his  fortune  depended  on  it.  Thus  can  a  man 
relax  whose  existence  is  devoted  to  great  objects  and  serious 
thoughts.  I  had  considerable  hopes  of  winning  the  Derby, 
but  was  beaten  easily,  my  horse  not  being  good.  An  odd  cir- 
cumstance occurred  to  me  before  the  race.  Payne  told  me  in 
strict  confidence  that  a  man  who  could  not  appear  on  account 
of  his  debts,  and  who  had  been  much  connected  with  turf 
robberies,  came  to  him,  and  entreated  him  to  take  the  odds 
for  him  to  £1,000  about  a  horse  for  the  Derby,  and  deposited 
a  note  in  his  hand  for  the  purpose.  He  told  him  half  the 
horses  were  made  safe,  and  it  was  arranged  this  one  was  to 


L63  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XX. 

win.  After  much  delay,  and  having  got  his  promise  to  lay 
out  the  money,  he  told  him  it  was  my  horse.  He  did  back 
the  horse  for  the  man  for  £700,  but  the  same  person  told  him 
if  my  horse  could  not  win  Dangerous  would,  and  he  backed 
the  latter  likewise  for  £100,  by  which  his  friend  was  saved, 
and  won  £800.  He  did  not  tell  me  his  name,  nor  any  thing 
more,  except  that  his  object  was,  if  he  had  won,  to  pay  his 
creditors,  and  he  had  authorized  Payne  to  retain  the  money,  if 
he  won  it,  for  that  purpose. 

We  heard,  while  at  the  Oaks,  that  M.  Dedel  had  signed 
the  convention  between  France,  England,  and  Holland,  on 
which  all  the  funds  rose.  The  King  of  Holland's  ratification 
was  still  to  be  got,  and  many  people  will  not  believe  in  that 
till  they  see  it. 

June  3d. — The  Government  are  in  high  spirits.  The 
Saints  have  given  in  their  adhesion  to  Stanley's  plan,  and 
they  expect  to  carry  the  West  India  question.  The  Bank  meas- 
ure has  satisfied  the  directors,  and  most  people,  except  Peel. 
The  Duke  of  Wellington  told  me  he  was  very  well  satisfied, 
but  that  they  had  intended  to  make  better  terms  with  the 
Bank,  and  he  thought  they  should  have  done  so.  Melbourne 
says,  "  Now  that  we  are  as  much  hated  as  they  were,  we  shall 
stay  in  forever." 

As  I  came  into  town  (having  come  by  the  steamboat  from 
Margate  very  luxuriously)  on  Saturday  I  found  a  final  meet- 
ing at  the  Council  Office  to  dispose  of  the  lunacy  case.  It 
was  so  late  when  Home  finished  his  reply  that  I  thought 
there  was  no  chance  of  any  discussion,  and  I  did  not  go  in ; 
but  I  met  the  Master  of  the  Rolls  afterward,  who  told  me 
they  had  delivered  their  opinions,  Lord  Eldon  cautiously,  he 
himself  "  broadly,"  which  I  will  be  bound  he  did  (for  he  hates 
Brougham),  and  that,  though  no  judgment  had  been  yet 
given,  the  Chancellor's  decree  would  be  reversed ;  so  that, 
after  all  Brougham's  wincing  and  wriggling,  to  this  he  has 
been  forced  to  submit  at  last. 

London,  June  llth. — At  a  place  called  Buckhurst  all  last 
week  for  the  Ascot  races ;  a  party  at  Lichfield's,  racing  all  the 
morning,  then  eating  and  drinking,  and  play  at  night.  I 
may  say,  with  more  truth  than  anybody,  "Video  meliora 
proboque,  deteriora  sequor."  The  weather  was  charming,  the 
course  crowded,  the  King  received  decently.  His  household 
is  now  so  ill  managed  that  his  grooms  were  drunk  every 
day,  and  one  man  (who  was  sober)  was  killed  going  home 


1833.]  A   GOVERNMENT   DEFEAT.  163 

from  the  races.  Goodwin  told  me  nobody  exercised  any 
authority,  and  the  consequence  was  that  the  household  all  ran 
riot. 

,  The  first  day  of  the  races  arrived  the  news  that  the  Duke 
of  Wellington,  after  making  a  strong  muster,  had  beaten 
the  Government  in  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  question  of 
Portuguese  neutrality  and  Dom  Miguel,  that  Lord  Grey  had 
announced  that  he  considered  it  a  vote  of  censure,  and  threw 
out  a  sort  of  threat  of  resigning.  He  and  Brougham  (after  a 
Cabinet)  went  down  to  the  King.  The  King  was  very  much 
annoyed  at  this  fresh  dilemma  into  which  the  Tories  had 
brought  him,  and  consented  to  whatever  Lord  Grey  required. 
In  the  mean  time  the  House  of  Commons  flew  to  arms,  and 
Colonel  Dawes  gave  notice  of  a  motion  of  confidence  in 
Ministers  upon  their  foreign  policy.  This  was  carried  by  an 
immense  majority  after  a  weak  debate,  in  which  some  very 
cowardly  menaces  were  thrown  out  against  the  Bishops,  and 
this  settled  the  question.  Ministers  did  not  resign,  no  Peers 
were  made,  and  every  thing  goes  on  as  before.  It  has  been, 
however,  a  disastrous  business.  How  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton could  take  this  course  after  the  conversation  I  had  with 
him  in  this  room,  when  he  told  me  he  would  support  the 
Government  because  he  wished  it  to  be  strong,  I  can't  con- 
ceive. At  all  events  he  seems  resolved  that  his  Parlia- 
mentary victories  should  be  as  injurious  as  his  military 
ones  were  glorious  to  his  country.  Some  of  his  friends  say 
that  he  was  provoked  by  Lord  Grey's  supercilious  answer  to 
him  the  other  day,  when  he  said  he  knew  nothing  of  what 
was  going  on  but  from  what  he  read  in  the  newspapers, 
others  that  he  "  feels  so  very  strongly  "  about  Portugal, 
others  that  he  cannot  manage  the  Tories,  and  that  they  were 
determined  to  fight ;  in  short,  that  he  has  not  the  same  author- 
ity as  leader  of  a  party  that  he  had  as  general  of  an  army,  for 
nobody  would  have  forced  him  to  fight  the  battle  of  Salamanca 
or  Vittoria  if  he  had  not  fancied  it  himself.  The  effect,  how- 
ever, has  been  this :  the  House  of  Lords  has  had  a  rap  on  the 
knuckles  from  the  King,  their  legislative  functions  are  prac- 
tically in  abeyance,  and  his  Majesty  is  more  tied  than  ever  to 
his  Ministers.  The  House  of  Lords  is  paralyzed ;  it  exists 
upon  sufferance,  and  cannot  venture  to  throw  out  or  materially 
alter  any  Bill  (such  as  the  India,  Bank,  Negro,  Church  Re- 
form, etc.)  which  may  come  up  to  it  without  the  certainty  of 
being  instantly  swamped,  and  the  measures,  however  obnox- 


1(54  REIGN  OF   WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XX. 

ious,  crammed  down  its  throat.  This  Government  has  lost 
ground  in  public  opinion,  they  were  daily  falling  lower,  and 
t-hese  predestinated  idiots  come  and  bolster  them  up  just  when 
they  most  want  it.  Tavistock  acknowledged  to  me  that  they 
were  unpopular,  and  that  this  freak  had  been  of  vast  service 
to  them ;  consequently  they  are  all  elated  to  the  greatest 
degree.  The  Tories  are  sulky  and  crestfallen ;  moderate  men 
are  vexed,  disappointed,  grieved ;  and  the  Radicals  stand  grin- 
ning by,  chuckling  at  the  sight  of  the  Conservatives  (at  least 
those  who  so  call  themselves,  and  those  who  must  be  so  really] 
cutting  each  others'  throats. 

On  Saturday,  the  day  after  I  came  back,  I  found  a  final 
meeting  at  the  Council  Office  on  the  lunacy  case,  the  appeal 
of  Grosvenor  against  Drax.  There  were  Lord  Lansdowne, 
the  Chancellor,  Vice-Chancellor,  Master  of  the  Rolls,  Lord 
Manners,  Lord  Eldon,  and  Lord  Lyndhurst.  The  rule  is  that 
the  President  of  the  Council  collects  the  opinions  and  votes, 
beginning  with  the  junior  Privy  Councilor.  This  was  the 
Chancellor,1  who  made  a  sort  of  apology  for  his  judgment, 
stating  that  he  had  made  the  order  just  after  two  or  three 
very  flagrant  cases  of  a  similar  description  had  been  brought 
under  his  notice,  and  then  he  went  into  this  case,  and  en- 
deavored to  show  that  there  was  fraud  (and  intentional 
fraud)  on  the  part  of  the  Grosvenors,  and  he  maintained, 
without  insisting  on,  and  very  mildly,  his  own  former  view 
of  the  case.  Leach  then  made  a  speech  strongly  against 
the  judgment,  and  Lord  Eldon  made  a  longish  speech,  very 
clear,  and  very  decided  against  it,  interlarded  with  profes- 
sions of  his  "  sincere  "  respect  for  the  person  who  delivered 
the  judgment.  The  Chancellor  did  not  reply  to  Lord  Eldon, 
but  put  some  questions — some  hypothetical,  and  some  upon 
parts  of  the  case  itself — which,  together  with  some  remarks, 
brought  on  a  discussion  between  him  and  Leach,  in  which  the 
latter  ended  by  lashing  himself  into  a  rage.  "  My  Lord,"  said 
he  to  the  Chancellor,  "  we  talk  too  much,  and  we  don't  stick 
to  the  point."  Brougham  put  on  one  of  his  scornful  smiles, 
and,  in  reply  to  something  (I  forget  what)  that  the  Vice- 
Chancellor  said,  he  dropped  in  his  sarcastic  tone  that  he  would 
do  so- and  so,  "if  his  Honor  would  permit."  For  a  moment  I 

1  [This  must  be  a  mistake.  The  Chancellor  takes  rank  in  the  Privy  Council 
after  the  Lord  President  and  before  every  one  else.  Lord  Brougham  was  junior 
Privy  Councilor  in  mere  seniority,  but  "his  office  gave  him  rank  over  others 
present.  His  opinion  was  probably  taken  first  out  of  compliment  to  him,  as  ho 
bad  made  the  order  under  review.] 


1833.]  TEMPLARS'   DINNER  TO   ELDON.  10o 

thought  there  would  be  a  breeze,  but  it  ended  without  any 
vote,  in  the  adoption  of  a  form  of  reversal  suggested  by  Lord 
Eldon,  which  left  it  to  the  option  of  the  respondent  to  insti- 
tute other  proceedings  if  he  should  think  fit.  Afterward  all 
was  harmony.  Eldon  seemed  tolerably  fresh,  feeble,  but  clear 
and  collected.  He  was  in  spirits  about  the  dinner  which  had 
just  been  given  him  by  the  Templars,  at  which  he  was  re- 
ceived with  extraordinary  honors.  He  said  he  hoped  never  to 
be  called  to  the  Council  Board  again,  and  this  was  probably 
the  last  occasion  on  which  he  will  have  to  appear  in  a  judicial 
capacity.  It  is  remarkable  that  his  last  act  should  be  to  re- 
verse a  judgment  of  Brougham's,  Brougham  being  Chancellor 
and  himself  nothing.  I  could  not  help  looking  with  something 
like  emotion  at  this  extraordinary  old  man,  and  reflecting 
upon  his  long  and  laborious  career,  which  is  terminating  gen- 
tly, and  by  almost  insensible  gradations,  in  a  manner  more 
congenial  to  a  philosophic  mind  than  to  an  ambitious  spirit. 
As  a  statesman  and  a  politician  he  has  survived  and  wit- 
nessed the  ruin  of  his  party  and  the  subversion  of  those 
particular  institutions  to  which  he  tenaciously  clung,  and 
which  his  prejudices  or  his  wisdom  made  him  think  indispen- 
sable to  the  existence  of  the  Constitution.  As  an  individual 
his  destiny  has  been  happier,  for  he  has  preserved  the  strength 
of  his  body  and  the  vigor  of  his  mind  far  beyond  the  ordinary 
period  allotted  to  man,  he  is  adorned  with  honors  and  blessed 
with  wealth  sufficient  for  the  aspirations  of  pride  and  avarice, 
and  while  the  lapse  of  time  has  silenced  the  voice  of  envy, 
and  retirement  from  office  has  mitigated  the  rancor  of  politi- 
cal hostility,  his  great  and  acknowledged  authority  as  a  lumi- 
nary of  the  law  shines  forth  with  purer  lustre.  He  enjoys, 
perhaps,  the  most  perfect  reward  of  his  life  of  labor  and  study 
— a  foretaste  of  posthumous  honor  and  fame.  He  has  lived 
to  see  his  name  venerated  and  his  decisions  received  with 
profound  respect,  and  he  is  departing  in  peace,  with  the  proud 
assurance  that  he  has  left  to  his  country  a  mighty  legacy  of 
law  and  secured  to  himself  an  imperishable  fame. 

June  15th. — The  day  before  yesterday  I  had  occasion  to 
see  the  Duke  of  Wellington  about  the  business  in  which  we 
are  joint  trustees,  and  when  we  had  done  I  said,  "Well,  that 
business  in  the  House  of  Lords  turned  out  ill  the  other  day." 
"  No ;  do  you  think  so  ?  "  he  said,  and  then  he  went  into  the 
matter.  He  said  that  lie  was  compelled  to  make  the  motion 
by  the  answer  Lord  Grey  gave  to  his  question  a  few  nights 


166  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM  17.  [CHAP.  XX. 

before;  that  his  party  in  the  House  of  Lords  would  not  be 
satisfied  without  dividing — they  had  been  impatient  to  attack 
the  Government,  and  were  not  to  be  restrained  ;  that  on  the 
question  itself  they  were  right ;  that  so  far  from  his  doing 
harm  to  the  Government,  if  they  availed  themselves  wisely  of 
the  defeat  they  might  turn  it  to  account  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  so  far  it  was  of  use  to  them,  as  it  afforded  a 
convincing  proof  to  their  supporters  that  the  House  of  Lords 
might  be  depended  upon  for  good  purposes,  and  they  might 
demand  of  their  supporters  in  the  other  House  that  they 
should  enable  them  to  carry  good  measures,  and  they  keep 
the  House  of  Commons  in  harmony  with  the  House  of  Lords. 
He  said  the  Government  would  make  no  Peers,  and  that  they 
could  not ;  that  the  Tories  were  by  no  means  frightened  or 
disheartened,  and  meant  to  take  the  first  opportunity  of 
showing  fight  again ;  in  short,  he  seemed  not  dissatisfied  with 
what  had  already  occurred,  and  resolved  to  pursue  the  same 
course.  He  said  the  Tories  were  indignant  at  the  idea  of 
being  compelled  to  keep  quiet,  and  that  if  they  were  to  be 
swamped  the  sooner  it  was  done  the  better,  and  that  they 
would  not  give  up  their  right  to  deal  with  any  question  they 
thought  fit  from  any  motive  of  expediency  whatever. 

I  don't  know  what  to  make  of  the  Duke  and  his  conduct. 
The  Catholic  question  and  the  Corn  Laws  and  Canning  rise 
up  before  me,  and  make  me  doubt  whether  he  is  so  pure  in 
his  views  and  so  free  from  vindictive  feelings  as  I  thought 
and  hoped  he  was.  When  Lords  Grey  and  Brougham  went 
down  to  the  King  after  the  defeat,  they  did  not  talk  of  Peers, 
and  only  proposed  the  short  answer  to  the  Lords,  to  which  he 
consented  at  once.  His  Majesty  was  very  indignant  with  the 
Duke,  and  said  it  was  the  second  time  he  had  got  him  into 
a  scrape,  he  had  made  a  fool  of  him  last  year,  and  now 
wanted  to  do  the  same  thing  again.  Some  pretend  that  all 
this  indignation  is  simulated ;  the  man  is,  I  believe,  more 
foolish  than  false. 

June  19ZA. — The  King  dined  with  the  Duke  at  his  Water- 
loo dinner  yesterday,  which  does  not  look  as  if  he  had  been 
so  very  angry  with  him  as  the  Government  people  say.  The 
Duke  had  his  windows  mended  for  the  occasion,  whether  in 
honor  of  his  Majesty  or  in  consequence  of  H.  B.'s  caricature 
I  don't  know. 

I  had  a  long  conversation  with  Sir  Willoughby  Cotton 
on  Sunday  about  Jamaica  affairs.  He  is  Command er-in- 


1833.]  AN   IMPRACTICABLE   PLAN.  167 

Chief,  just  come  home,  and  just  going  out  again.  He  told 
me  what  he  had  said  to  Stanley,  which  was  to  this  effect : 
that  the  compensation  would  be  esteemed  munificent,  greater 
by  far  than  they  had  expected ;  that  they  had  looked  for  a 
Joan  of  fifteen  millions  at  two  per  cent,  interest,  but  that  the 
plan  would  be  impracticable,  and  that  sugar  could  not  be  cul- 
tivated after  slavery  ceased;  that  the  slave  would  never  un- 
derstand the  sytsem  of  modified  servitude  by  which  he  was  to 
be  nominally  free  and  actually  kept  to  labor,  and  that  he  would 
rebel  against  the  magistrate  who  tried  to  force  him  to  work 
more  fiercely  than  against  his  master ;  that  the  magistrate 
would  never  be  able  to  persuade  the  slaves  in  their  new  char- 
acter of  apprentices  to  work  as  heretofore,  and  the  military 
who  would  be  called  in  to  assist  them  could  do  nothing.  He 
asked  Stanley  if  he  intended,  when  the  military  were  called 
in,  that  they  should  fire  on  or  bayonet  the  refractory  appren- 
tices. He  said  no,  they  were  to  exhort  them.  He  gave  him 
to  understand  that  in  his  opinion  they  could  do  nothing,  and 
that  the  more  the  soldiers  exhorted  the  more  the  slaves  would 
not  work.  "With  regard  to  my  own  particular  case  he  was 
rather  encouraging  than  not,  thought  they  would  not  molest 
me  any  more,1  that  the  Assembly  might  try  and  get  me  out, 
but  that  the  Council  considered  it  matter  of  loyalty  to  the 
King  not  to  force  out  the  Clerk  of  his  Privy  Council,  but  that 
if  any  thing  more  was  said  about  it,  and  I  went  out  to 
Jamaica,  I  might  be  sure  of  getting  leave  again  in  a  month  or 
six  weeks. 

June  26th. — This  morning  at  six  saw  my  mother  and 
Henry  start  for  the  steamboat  which  is  to  take  them  abroad. 
I  wish  I  was  going  with  them,  and  was  destined  once  more  to 
see  Rome  and  Naples,  which  I  fear  will  never  be.  Last  week 
was  marked  by  a  division  in  the  House  of  Commons  which 
made  a  great  noise.  It  was  on  that  clause  of  the  Irish  Church 
Bill  which  declared  that  the  surplus  should  be  appropriated 
by  Parliament,  and  Stanley  thought  fit  to  leave  out  the 
clause.  The  Tories  supported  him;  the  Radicals  and  many 
of  the  "Whigs — Abercromby  and  C.  Russell  among  the  num- 
ber— opposed  him.  The  minority  was  strong,  148,  but  the 
fury  it  excited  among  many  of  the  friends  of  Government  is 

1  [This  refers  to  Mr.  Greville's  holding  the  office  of  Secretary  of  the  Island 
of  Jamaica  with  permanent  leave  of  absence.  The  work  of  the  office  was 
done  by  a  deputy,  who  was  paid  by  a  share  of  the  emoluments  which  were  in 
the  shape  of  tees.] 


1G8  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XX. 

incredible,  and  the  Tories  were  very  triumphant  without  being 
at  all  conciliated.  The  Speaker  said  lie  should  not  be  sur- 
prised to  see  the  Bill  thrown  out  by  the  junction  of  the  Tories 
and  Radicals  on  the  third  reading,  which  is  not  likely,  and  the 
suppression  of  this  clause,  which  after  all  leaves  the  matter 
just  as  it  was,  will  probably  carry  it  through  the  House  of 
Lords.  It  is,  however,  very  questionable  whether  they  were 
right  in  withdrawing  it,  and  Tavistock  told  me  that  though  he 
thought  it  was  right  it  was  ill  done,  and  had  given  great 
offense.  Somehow  or  other  Stanley,  with  all  his  talents, 
makes  a  mess  of  every  thing,  but  this  comes  of  being  (what 
the  violent  Whigs  suspect  him  of  being)  half  a  Tory.  Meas- 
ures are  concocted  upon  ultra  principles  in  the  Cabinet,  and 
then  as  his  influence  is  exerted,  and  his  wishes  are  obliged  to 
be  consulted,  they  are  modified  and  altered,  and  this  gives  a 
character  of  vacillation  to  the  conduct  of  the  Government,  and 
exhibits  a  degree  of  weakness  and  infirmity  of  purpose  which 
prevents  their  being  strong  or  popular  or  respectable.  No- 
body, however;  can  say  that  they  are  obstinate,  for  they  are 
eternally  giving  way  to  somebody.  In  the  House  of  Lords 
there  was  a  sharp  skirmish  between  Brougham  and  Lynd- 
hurst,  and  high  Parliamentary  words  passed  between  these 
"  noble  friends "  on  the  Local  Courts  Bill.  The  Tories  did 
not  go  down  to  support  Lyndhurst,  which  provoked  him,  and 
Brougham  was  nettled  by  his  and  old  Eldon's  attacks  on  the 
Bill. 

There  is  great  talk  of  a  letter  which  the  King  is  said  to 
have  written  to  the  bishops — that  is,  to  the  Archbishop  for 
the  edification  of  the  episcopal  bench.  It  is  hardly  credible 
that  he  and  Taylor  should  have  been  guilty  of  this  folly,  after 
the  letter  which  they  wrote  to  the  Peers  a  year  and  a  half  ago, 
and  the  stir  that  it  made. 

I  have  got  from  Sir  Henry  Lushington  Monk  Lewis's 
journals  and  his  two  voyages  to  the  West  Indies  (one  of 
which  I  read  at  Naples),  with  liberty  to  publish  them,  which 
I  mean  to  do  if  I  can  get  money  enough  for  him.  He  says 
Murray  offered  him  £500  for  the  manuscripts  some  years 
ago.  I  doubt  getting  so  much  now,  but  they  are  uncommonly 
amusing,  and  it  is  the  right  moment  for  publishing  them  now 
that  people  are  fall  of  interest  about  the  West  India  question. 
I  was  very  well  amused  last  week  at  the  bazaar  in  Hanover 
Square,  when  a  sale  was  held  on  four  successive  days  by  the 
fine  ladies  for  the  benefit  of  the  foreigners  in  distress.  It  was 


1833.]  BAZAAR   FOR  DISTRESSED  FOREIGNERS.  169 

like  a  masquerade  without  masks,  for  everybody — :men,  wom- 
en, and  children — roved  about  where  they  would,  everybody 
talking  to  everybody,  and  vast  familiarity  established  between 
perfect  strangers  under  the  guise  of  barter.  The  Queen's 
stall  was  held  by  Ladies  Howe  and  Denbigh,  with  her  three 
prettiest  maids  of  honor,  Miss  Bagot  dressed  like  a  soubrette 
and  looking  like  an  angel.  They  sold  all  sorts  of  trash  at 
enormous  prices,  and  made,  I  believe,  four  or  five  thousand 
pounds.  I  went  on  Monday  to  hear  Lushington  speak  in  the 
cause  of  Swift  and  Kelly.  He  spoke  for  three  hours — an  ex- 
cellent speech.  I  sat  by  Mr.  Swift  all  the  time  ;  he  is  not  ill- 
looking,  but  I  should  think  vulgar,  and  I'm  sure  impudent, 
for  the  more  Lushington  abused  him  the  more  he  laughed. 

June  28th. — The  King  did  write  to  the  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury a  severe  reproof  to  be  communicated  to  the  bishops 
for  having  voted  against  his  Government  upon  a  question 
purely  political  (the  Portuguese),  in  which  the  interests  of  the 
Church  were  in  no  way  concerned.  He  sent  a  copy  of  the 
letter  to  Lord  Grey,  and  Brougham  told  Sefton  and  Wharn- 
cliffe  the  contents,  both  of  whom  told  me.  It  is  remarkable 
that  nothing  has  been  said  upon  the  subject  in  the  House  of 
Lords.  The  Archbishop,  the  most  timid  of  mankind,  had  the 
prudence  (I  am  told)  to  abstain  from  communicating  the  letter 
to  the  bishops,  and  held  a  long  consultation  with  the  Arch- 
bishop of  York  as  to  the  mode  of  dealing  with  this  puzzling 
document.  If  he  had  communicated  it,  he  would  as  a  Privy 
Councillor  have  been  responsible  for  it,  but  what  answer  he 
made  to  the  King  I  know  not.  Never  was  there  such  a  pro- 
ceeding, so  unconstitutional,  so  foolish  ;  but  his  Ministers  do 
not  seem  to  mind  it,  and  are  rather  elated  at  such  a  signal 
proof  of  his  disposition  to  support  them.  I  think,  as  far  as 
being  a  discouragement  to  the  Tories,  and  putting  an  end  to 
their  notion  that  he  is  hankering  after  them,  it  may  be  of  use, 
and  it  is  probably  true  that  he  does  not  wish  for  a  change,  but 
on  the  contrary  dreads  it.  He  naturally  dreads  whatever  is 
likely  to  raise  a  storm  about  his  ears  and  interrupt  his  repose. 
Lyndhurst  is  in  such  a  rage  at  his  defeat  in  the  House  of 
Lords  on  the  Local  Courts  Bill  that  he  swore  at  first  he  would 
never  come  there  again.  What  he  said — that  "  if  they  had 
considered  it  a  party  question  the  result  would  have  been  very 
different,"  which  Brougham  unaccountably  took  for  a  threat 
against  the  Government — was  leveled  at  his  own  Tory  friends 
for  not  supporting  him.  On  the  third  reading  they  mean  to 
30 


170  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [Cn^r.  XXF. 

have  another  fight  about  it.  I  understand  the  lawyers  that 
the  Bill  is  very  objectionable,  and  calculated  to  degrade  the 
profession.  I  sat  by  Talleyrand  at  dinner  the  day  before  yes- 
terday, who  told  me  a  good  deal  about  Mirabeau,  but  as  he 
had  a  bad  cold,  in  addition  to  his  usual  mode  of  pumping  up 
his  words  from  the  bottomest  pit  of  his  stomach,  it  was  next 
to  impossible  to  understand  him.  He  said  Mirabeau  was 
really  intimate  with  three  people  only — himself,  Narbonne, 
and  Lau/un — that  Auguste  d'Aremberg  was  the  negotiator 
of  the  Court  and  medium  of  its  communications  with  Mirabeau ; 
that  he  had  found  (during  the  provisional  Government)  a  re- 
ceipt of  Mirabeau's  for  a  million,  which  he  had  given  to  Louis 
XVIII. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

Dinner  at  Greenwich — Monk  Lewis — The  King's  Letter — Lord  Althorp's  Finance — Salutes 
to  the  Eoyal  Family — Death  of  Lord  Dover— His  Character — Lyndhurst  and  Brougham 
on  the  Local  Courts  Bill — Charles  Napier  captures  the  Miguelite  Fleet— The  Irish 
Church  Bill — The  Duke  of  Wellington  and  the  Bonapartes — Blount's  Preaching — Sir 
Robert  Peel  on  Political  Unions — Mr.  George  Villiers  appointed  to  Madrid — Duke  of 
Richmond — Suspension  Clause  in  Irish  Church  Bill — Apprenticeship  Clause  in  West 
India  Bill — State  of  House  of  Commons — Lucien  and  Joseph  Bonaparte — Lord  Plunket 
— Denis  Lemarchant — Brougham  and  Sugden — Pirncess  Lieven — Anecdotes  of  tho 
Emperor  Nicholas — Affairs  of  Portugal — Dom  Miguel  at  Strathfieldsaye — Prorogation 
of  Parliament— Results  of  the  Reform  Bill. 

June  2Qth. — I  am  going,  if  not  too  lazy,  to  note  down  the 
every-day  nothings  of  my  life,  and  see  what  it  looks  like. 

We  dined  yesterday  at  Greenwich,  the  dinner  given  by 
Sefton,  who  took  the  whole  party  in  his  omnibus,  and  his 
great  open  carrriage ;  Talleyrand,  Madame  de  Dino,  Standish, 
Neumann,  and  the  Molyneux  family ;  dined  in  a  room  called 
"  the  Apollo  "  at  the  Crown  and  Sceptre.  I  thought  we  should 
never  get  Talleyrand  up  two  narrow  perpendicular  staircases, 
but  he  sidles  and  wriggles  himself  somehow  into  every  place 
he  pleases.  A  capital  dinner,  tolerably  pleasant,  and  a  divine 
evening.  Went  afterward  to  the  "  Travelers,"  and  played  at 
whist,  and  read  the  new  edition  of  "  Horace  Walpole's  Letters 
to  Sir  Horace  Mann."  There  is  something  I  don't  like  in  his 
style ;  his  letters  don't  amuse  me  so  much  as  they  ought  to  do. 

A  letter  this  morning  from  Sir  Henry  Lushington  about 
Monk  Lewis.  He  is  rather  averse  to  a  biographical  sketch, 
because  he  thinks  a  true  account  of  his  life  and  character 


1833.]  BELLINI'S   "NORMA."  171 

would  not  do  him  credit,  and  adds  a  sketch  of  the  latter, 
which  is  not  flattering.  Lord  Melbourne  told  me  the  other 
day  a  queer  trait  of  Lewis.  He  had  a  long-standing  quarrel 
with  Lushington.  Having  occasion  to  go  to  Naples,  he  wrote 
beforehand  to  him,  to  say  that  their  quarrel  had  better  be 
suspended,  and  he  went  and  lived  with  him  and  his  sister 
(Lady  L.)  in  perfect  cordiality  during  his  stay.  When  he  de- 
parted he  wrote  to  Lushington  to  say  that  now  they  should 
resume  their  quarrel,  and  put  matters  in  the  "  status  quo  ante 
pacem,"  and  accordingly  he  did  resume  it,  with  rather  more 
acharnement  than  before. 

Charles  Wood  came  into  my  room  yesterday,  and  talked 
of  the  King's  letter,  said  he  understood  the  Archbishop  had 
imparted  it  to  the  seven  Bishops  who  had  voted,  that  nothing 
would  come  of  it,  for  it  was  a  private  letter  which  nobody  had 
a  right  to  take  up.  I  see  the  Government  are  not  displeased 
at  such  an  evidence  of  the  King's  good-will.  The  King  and 
Taylor  both  love  letter-writing,  and  both  are  voluminously  in- 
clined. Wood  told  me  that  last  year  Lord  Grey  got  one  letter 
from  them  (for  Taylor  writes  and  the  King  approves)  of  seven 
sheets ;  what  a  mass  of  silly  verbiage  there  must  have  been  to 
wade  through !  * 

July  3d. — Nothing  to  put  down  these  last  two  days,  un- 
less I  go  back  to  my  old  practice  of  recording  what  I  read, 
and  which  I  rather  think  I  left  off  because  I  read  nothing, 
and  had  nothing  to  put  down ;  but  in  the  last  two  days  I 
have  read  a  little  of  Cicero's  "  Second  Philippic,"  Voltaire's 
"  Siecle  de  Louis  XIV.,"  Coleridge's  "  Journey  to  the  West  In- 
dies ; "  bought  some  books,  went  to  the  opera  to  hear  Bellini's 
"  Norma,"  and  thought  it  heavy,  Pasta's  voice  not  what  it  was. 
Everybody  talking  yesterday  of  Althorp's  exhibition  in  the 
House  of  Commons  the  night  before  (for  particulars  of  which 
see  newspapers  and  Parliamentary  debates).  It  is  too  ludi- 
crous, too  melancholy,  to  think  of  the  finances  of  this  country 
being  managed  by  such  a  man ;  what  will  not  people  endure  ? 
What  a  strange  medley  politics  produce ;  a  wretched  clerk  in 
an  office  who  makes  some  unimportant  blunder,  some  clerical 
error,  or  who  exhibits  signs  of  incapacity  for  work,  which  it 
does  not  much  signify  whether  it  be  well  or  ill  done,  is  got  rid 
of,  and  here  this  man,  this  good-natured,  popular,  liked-and- 

1  [This  is  not  just.  The  published  correspondence  of  King  William  IV. 
and  Earl  Grey  proves  that  the  King's  letters  were  written  by  Sir  Herbert  Tay- 
lor with  the  greatest  ability.] 


I_72  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

laughed-at  good  fellow,  more  of  a  grazier  than  a  statesman, 
blurts  out  his  utter  ignorance  before  a  Reformed  Parliament, 
and  people  lift  up  their  eyes,  shrug  their  shoulders,  and  laugh 
and  chuckle,  but  still  on  he  goes. 

July  4:th. — At  Court  yesterday,  and  Council  for  a  foolish 
business.  The  King  has  been  (not  unnaturally)  disgusted  at 
the  Duchess  of  Kent's  progresses  with  her  daughter  through 
the  kingdom,  and  among  the  rest  with  her  sailings  at  the  Isle 
of  Wight,  and  the  continual  popping  in  the  shape  of  salutes 
to  Her  Royal  Highness.  He  did  not  choose  that  this  latter 
practice  should  go  on,  and  he  signified  his  pleasure  to  Sir 
James  Graham  and  Lord  Hill,  for  salutes  are  matter  of  general 
order,  both  to  army  and  navy.  They  (and  Lord  Grey)  thought 
it  better  to  make  no  order  on  the  subject,  and  they  opened  a 
negotiation  with  the  Duchess  of  Kent,  to  induce  her  of  her 
own  accord  to  waive  the  salutes,  and  when  she  went  to  the 
Isle  of  Wight  to  send  word  that  as  she  was  sailing  about  for 
her  amusement  she  had  rather  they  did  not  salute  her  when- 
ever she  appeared.  The  negotiation  failed,  for  the  Duchess 
insisted  upon  her  right  to  be  saluted,  and  would  not  give  it 
up.  Kemp  told  me  he  had  heard  that  Conroy  (who  is  a  ridicu- 
lous fellow,  a  compound  of  "  Great  Hussy  "  and  the  Chamber- 
lain of  the  Princess  of  Navarre J)  had  said,  "  that  as  Her 
Royal  Highness's  confidential  adviser,  be  could  not  recom- 
mend her  to  give  way  on  this  point."  As  she  declined  to 
accede  to  the  proposals,  nothing  remained  but  to  alter  the 
regulations,  and  accordingly  yesterday,  by  an  Order  in  Coun- 
cil, the  King  changed  them,  and  from  this  time  the  Royal 
Standard  is  only  to  be  saluted  when  the  King  or  the  Queen 
is  on  board. 

Friday ',  July  Y&th. — Went  to  Newmarket  on  Sunday,  came 
back  yesterday,  got  back  at  half-past  nine,  went  to  Crockford's, 
and  heard  on  the  steps  of  the  house  that  poor  Dover  had 
died  that  morning.  The  accounts  I  had  received  at  New- 
market confirmed  my  previous  impression  that  there  was  no 
hope ;  and,  indeed,  the  sanguine  expectations  of  his  family 
are  only  to  be  accounted  for  by  that  disposition  in  the  human 
mind  to  look  at  the  most  favorable  side,  and  to  cling  with 
pertinacity  to  hope  when  reason  bids  us  despair.  There 
has  seldom  been  destroyed  a  fairer  scene  of  happiness  and 
domestic  prosperity  than  by  this  event.  He  dies  in  the 
flower  of  his  age,  surrounded  with  all  the  elements  of  hap- 
1  See  Sir  C.  Hanbury  Williams's  Poems. 


1833.]  DEATH  OF  LORD  DOVER.  173 

piness,  and  with  no  drawback  but  that  of  weak  health,  which 
until  within  the  last  few  months  was  not  sufficiently  impor- 
tant to  counterbalance  the  good,  and  only  amounted  to  feeble- 
ness and  delicacy  of  constitution ;  and  it  is  the  breaking  up  of 
a  house  replete  with  social  enjoyment,  six  or  seven  children 
deprived  of  their  father,  and  a  young  wife  and  his  old  father 
overwhelmed  with  a  grief  which  the  former  may,  but  the 
latter  never  can,  get  over,  for  to  him  time  sufficient  cannot  in 
the  course  of  nature  be  allotted.     Few  men  could  be  more  gen- 
erally regretted  than  Lord  Dover  will  be  by  an  immense  circle 
of  connections  and  friends  for  his  really  amiable  and  endear- 
ing qualities,  by  the  world  at  large  for  the  serious  loss  which 
society  sustains,  and  the  disappointment  of  the  expectations 
of  what  he  one  day  might  have  been.     He  occupied  as  large 
a  space  in  society  as  his  talents  (which  were  by  no  means 
first  rate)   permitted ;    but   he   was   clever,  lively,  agreeable, 
good-tempered,  good-natured,  hospitable,  liberal,  and  rich,  a 
zealous  friend,  an  eager  political  partisan,  full  of  activity  and 
vivacity,  enjoying  life,  and  anxious  that  the  circle  of  his  en- 
joyment should  be  widely  extended.     George  Agar  Ellis  was 
the  only  son  of  Lord  Clifden,  and  obtained  early  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  a  prodigy  of  youthful  talent  and  information. 
He  was  quick,  lively,  and  had  a  very  retentive  memory,  and 
having  entered  the  world  with  this  reputation,  and  his  great 
expectations  besides,  he  speedily  became  one  of  the  most  con- 
spicuous 3'ouths  of  the  day.     Having  imbibed  a  great  admira- 
tion for  Lord  Orford  (Horace  Walpole),  he  evinced  a  disposi- 
tion to  make  him  his  model,  and  took  pains  to  store  his  mind 
with  that  sort  of  light  miscellaneous  literature  in  which  Lord 
Orford  delighted.     He  got  into  the  House  of  Commons,  but 
never  was  able  to  speak,  never  attempted  to  say  more  than  a% 
few  words,  and  from  the  beginning  gave  up  all  idea  of  orator- 
ical distinction.      After  running  about  the  world  for  a  few 
years  he  resolved  to  marry,  and  as  his  heart  had  nothing  to  do 
with  this  determination,  he  pitched  upon  a  daughter  of  the 
Duke  of  Beaufort's,  who  he  thought  would  suit  his  purpose, 
and  confer  upon  him  a  very  agreeable  family  connection.     Be- 
ing on  a  tour  in  the  North,  he  intended  to  finish  it  at  Badmin- 
ton, and  there  to  propose  to  Lady  Georgiana  Somerset,  with 
full  assurance  that  he  should  not  be  rejected;   but  having 
stopped  for  a  few  days  at  Lord  Carlisle's  at  Castle  How- 
ard, he  there  found  a  girl  who  spared  him  the  trouble  of 
going  any  farther,  and  at  the  expiration  of  three  or  four  days 


L74  '      REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

he  proposed  in  form  to  Lord  Morpeth's  second  daughter, 
G-eorgiana  Howard,  who,  not  less  surprised  than  pleased  and 
proud  at  the  conquest  she  found  she  had  so  unconsciously 
made,  immediately  accepted  him.  There  never  was  a  less  ro- 
mantic attachment,  or  more  business-like  engagement,  nor  was 
there  ever  a  more  fortunate  choice  or  a  happier  union.  Mild, 
gentle,  and  amiable,  full  of  devotion  to  and  admiration  of  her 
husband,  her  soft  and  feminine  qualities  were  harmoniously 
blended  with  his  vivacity  and  animal  spirits,  and  produced  to- 
gether results  not  more  felicitous  for  themselves  than  agree- 
able to  all  who  belonged  to  their  society.  Soon  after  his 
marriage,  Ellis,  who  had  never  been  vicious  or  profligate,  but 
who  was  free  from  any  thing  like  severity  or  austerity,  began 
to  show  symptoms  of  a  devout  propensity,  and  not  contented 
with  an  ordinary  discharge  of  religious  duties,  he  read  tracts 
and  sermons,  frequented  churches  and  preachings,  gave  up 
driving  on  Sundays,  and  appeared  in  considerable  danger  of 
falling  into  the  gulf  of  Methodism ;  but  this  turn  did  not  last 
long,  and  whatever  induced  him  to  take  it  up,  he  apparently 
became  bored  with  his  self-imposed  restrictions,  and  after  a 
little  while  he  threw  off  his  short-lived  sanctity,  arid  resumed 
his  worldly  habits  and  irreverent  language,  for  he  was  always 
a  loose  talker.  Active  and  ambitious  in  his  pursuits,  and  mag- 
nificent in  his  tastes,  he  devoted  himself  to  literature,  politics, 
and  society ;  to  the  first  two  with  greater  success  than  would 
be  expected  of  a  man  whose  talents  for  composition  were  be- 
low mediocrity,  and  for  public  speaking  none  at  all.  He  be- 
came the  patron  of  various  literary  institutions  and  under- 
takings connected  with  the  arts,  he  took  the  chair  at  public 
meetings  for  literary  or  scientific  purposes,  he  read  a  good 
deal  and  wrote  a  little.  The  only  work  which  he  put  forth  of 
any  consequence  was  "  The  Life  of  Frederick  II.,"  which  con- 
^tained  scarcely  any  original  matter,  and  was  remarkably  barren 
of  original  ideas ;  but  as  it  was  a  compilation  from  several 
very  amusing  writers,  was  not  devoid  of  entertainment.1 
Though  unable  to  speak  in  Parliament,  he  entered  warmly 
into  politics,  formed  several  political  intimacies,  especially 
with  the  Chancellor  (Brougham),  and  undertook  much  of  the 
minor  Government  work  of  keeping  proxies,  making  houses 

1  [Lord  Dover's  volume  on  the  "  Man  in  the  Iron  Mask  "  deserves  not  to  be 
altogether  forgotten,  though  more  recent  researches  have  proved  that  his  theory 
identifying  the  "  Iron  Mask"  with  Mathioli,  the  captured  agent  of  the  Duke  of 
Parina,  cannot  be  supported.] 


1833.]  THE   LOCAL   COURTS   BILL   THROWN   OUT.  175 

(in  the  House  of  Lords),  and  managing  the  local  details  of 
the  House  itself.  But  however  contracted  his  sphere  both  in 
literature  and  politics,  in  society  his  merits  were  conspicuous 
and  his  success  unquestionable.  Without  a  strong  under- 
standing, destitute  of  fancy  and  imagination,  and  with  neither 
eloquence  nor  wit,  he  was  a  remarkably  agreeable  man.  He  was 
hospitable,  courteous,  and  cordial ;  he  collected  about  him  the 
most  distinguished  persons  in  every  rank  and  condition  of  life. 
He  had  a  constant  flow  of  animal  spirits,  much  miscellaneous 
information,  an  excellent  memory,  a  great  enjoyment  of  fun 
and  humor,  a  refined  taste  and  perfect  good-breeding.  But 
his  more  solid  merit  was  the  thorough  goodness  of  his  heart, 
and  the  strong  and  durable  nature  of  his  friendships  and  early 
attachments.  To  the  friends  of  his  youth  he  was  bound  to  the 
last  moment  of  his  life  with  unremitting  kindness  and  never- 
cooling  affection ;  no  greater  connections  or  more  ambitious 
interests  canceled  those  early  ties,  and  though  he  was  not 
unnaturally  dazzled  and  flattered  by  the  later  intimacies  he 
contracted,  this  never  for  a  moment  made  him  forgetful  of  or 
indifferent  to  his  first  and  less  distinguished  friends. 

The  Local  Courts  Bill  was  thrown  out  by  twelve.  His 
party  made  the  amende  honorable  to  Lyndhurst,  and  went 
down  in  a  body  to  back  him.  He  and  Brougham  each  spoke 
for  two  hours  or  more,  and  both  with  consummate  skill,  the 
latter  especially  in  his  very  best  style,  and  with  extraordinary 
power  and  eloquence.  It  would  not  perhaps  be  easy  to  decide 
which  made  the  ablest  speech ;  that  of  Lyndhurst  was  clear, 
logical,  and  profound,  replete  with  a  sort  of  judicial  weight 
and  dignity,  with  a  fine  and  cutting  vein  of  sarcasm  constantly 
peeping  from  behind  a  thick  veil  of  complimentary  phraseology. 
Brougham  more  various,  more  imaginative,  more  impassioned, 
more  eloquent,  and  exceedingly  dexterous.  Unable  to  crush 
Lyndhurst,  he  resembled  one  of  Homer's  heroes,  who,  missing 
his  great  antagonist,  wreaked  his  fury  on  some  ignominious 
foe,  and  he  fell  upon  Wynford  with  overpowering  severity. 
As  somebody  told  me  who  heard  him,  "  He  flayed  him  alive, 
and  kept  rubbing  salt  upon  his  back."  It  appears  to  have  been 
a  great  exhibition.  There  was  Lyndhurst  after  his  speech, 
drinking  tea,  not  a  bit  tired,  elated,  and  chuckling :  "  Well, 
how  long  will  the  Chancellor  speak,  do  you  think,  eh  ?  we 
shall  have  some  good  fun  from  him.  What  lies  he  will  tell, 
and  how  he  will  misrepresent  every  thing !  come,  let's  have 
done  our  tea,  that  we  mayn't  miss  him,  eh  ? "  The  truth 


176  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

seems  to  be  that  the  Bill  is  not  a  good  Bill,  and  is  condemned 
by  the  lawyers,  that  some  such  measure  is  required,  but  that 
this  is  nothing  more  than  a  gigantic  job,  conferring  enormous 
patronage  upon  the  Chancellor.  The  debate,  however,  appears 
to  have  afforded  a  grand  display  of  talent.1 

Macaulay  is  said  to  have  made  an  admirable  speech  last 
night  on  the  Indian  question  in  the  House  of  Commons.  I 
observe,  by-the-by,  that  very  few  of  the  Bishops  voted  the 
other  night,  but  all  who  did  voted  with  Government ;  even 
Exeter  went  away  before  the  division,  so  the  King's  letter 
seems  to  have  produced  some  effect.  I  have  had  a  squabble 
with  Lady  Holland  about  some  nonsense,  but  she  was  insolent, 
so  I  was  fierce,  and  then  she  was  civil,  as  she  usually  is  to 
those  who  won't  be  bullied  by  her. 

July  V&th. — It  is  extraordinary  how  little  sensation  the  de- 
feat of  Government  in  the  House  of  Lords  has  caused.  Every- 
body talks  of  the  debate,  nobody  thinks  of  the  event,  but  I  find 
several  people  expect  that  the  Church  Bill  will  be  thrown  out, 
which  would  be  a  much  more  serious  thing.  I  betted  Stanley 
five  pounds  to  one  yesterday  that  they  were  not  beaten  on  the 
second  reading  of  the  Irish  Church  Bill.  I  have  concluded  a 
bargain  with  Murray  for  Lewis's  journal  and  sold  it  him  for 
400  guineas,  the  MSS.  to  be  returned  to  Lushington,  and  fif- 
teen copies  for  him,  and  five  for  me,  gratis. 

July  ~l_4:th. — Wharncliffe  told  me  yesterday  that  the  Duke 
and  the  Opposition  do  not  mean  to  throw  out  the  Irish  Church 
Bill  on  the  second  reading.  He  had  been  in  great  alarm  him- 
self after  the  Duke's  speech  lest  they  should,  but  had  since 
heard  what  satisfied  him  they  would  not ;  he  said  that  Sir 
John  Wrottesley's  motion  for  a  call  of  the  House  had  given 
them  great  offense,  and  was  an  extreme  piece  of  folly,  for  it 
was  obviously  for  the  purpose  of  bullying  the  House  of 
Lords,  who  would  not  be  bullied,  and  this  species  of  menace 
only  increased  the  obstinacy  of  the  majority  there,  but  that 
the  Duke  could  command  the  greater  number,  and  though 
there  might  be  a  division  (as  some  cannot  be  restrained 
from  dividing)  there  would  be  no  endeavor  to  throw  it  out. 

1  [The  successful  efforts  of  the  Tories  to  prevent  the  establishment  of  a  sys- 
tem of  Local  Courts  of  limited  jurisdiction,  retarded  for  many  years  that  im- 
portant measure  to  which  we,  at  last,  owe  the  County  Courts — now  an  institu- 
tion of  the  utmost  social  utility.  Nothing  can  be  more  characteristic  of  the 
blind  bigotry  of  the  Tory  party  at  that  time,  and  the  party  spirit  of  Lord  Lyud- 
hurst ;  for  the  measure  had  no  bearing  upon  politics,  and  was  simply  a  cheap 
and  easy  mode  of  recovering  small  debts.] 


1833.]  CAPTURE  OF  DOM  MIGUEL'S  i?'LEET.  177 

Thus  it  is  that  one  folly  produces  another  :  the  Duke's  silly 
speech  about  the  Coronation  Oath  (a  piece  of  nonsense  quite 
unworthy  of  his  straightforward,  manly  sense)  produced  Wrot- 
tesley's  bravado  in  the  other  House.  But  Wharncliffe  says  he 
is  persuaded  nothing  can  prevent  a  collision  between  the  two 
Houses  ultimately.  There  is  a  great  idea  that  the  Govern- 
ment will  fall  to  pieces  before  the  end  of  this  year.  Tavistock 
told  me  that  Althorp  would  certainly  go  out  in  a  very  few 
months,  and  that  he  would  go  on  the  turf  I  Tom  Buncombe 
is  found  guilty  at  Hertford  (of  a  libel),  and  recommended  to 
mercy,  to  the  infinite  diversion  of  his  friends. 

July  15£A. — Yesterday  came  the  news  of  Captain  Napier 
having  captured  the  whole  of  Dom  Miguel's  fleet,  to  the  great 
delight  of  the  Whigs,  and  equal  mortification  of  the  Tories. 
It  appears  to  have  been  a  dashing  affair,  and  very  cowardly  on 
the  part  of  the  Miguelites.  The  day  before  the  news  came, 
Napier  had  been  struck  out  of  the  British  Navy. 

Met  Duncannon  in  the  morning,  who  was  very  gloomy 
about  Wednesday,  at  the  same  time  saying  he  rather  hoped 
the  Tories  would  throw  out  the  Irish  Church  Bill,  for  it  was 
impossible  to  go  on  as  they  were  now  doing  ;  that  if  they  did, 
two  motions  would  infallibly  be  made  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, an  address  to  the  Crown  to  make  Peers,  and  a  vote  for 
the  expulsion  of  the  Bishops,  and  that  both  would  be  carried  by 
great  majorities.  He  talked  much  of  the  Irish  Church,  and 
of  the  abominations  that  had  been  going  on  even  under  his 
own  eyes.  One  case  he  mentions  of  a  man  who  holds  a  living 
of  £1,000  a  year  close  to  Bessborough,  whom  he  knows. 
There  is  no  house,  no  church,  and  there  are  no  Protestants  in 
the  parish.  He  went  there  to  be  inducted,  and  dined  with 
Duncannon  at  Bessborough  the  day  after.  Duncannon  asked 
him  how  he  had  managed  the  necessary  form,  and  he  said  he 
had  been  obliged  to  borrow  the  clerk  and  three  Protestants 
from  a  neighboring  parish,  and  had  read  the  morning  and 
evening  service  to  them  within  the  ruined  walls  of  the  old 
Abbey,  and  they  signed  a  certificate  that  he  had  complied 
with  the  forms  prescribed  by  law  ;  he  added  that  people 
would  no  longer  endure  such  things,  that  no  existing  in- 
terests were  to  be  touched,  and  that  if  remedial  measures 
were  still  opposed,  the  whole  fabric  would  be  pulled  down. 
He  was  still  persuaded  that  the  Opposition  meant  to  throw 
out  the  Bill. 

In  the  evening  I  dined  at  the  Duke  of  Richmond's,  and 


[78  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

found  Stanley  informed  of  the  result  of  the  meeting  at  the 
Duke  of  Wellington's  in  the  morning,  which  was  decisive 
on  the  question.  The  Duke,  after  his  extraordinary  speech 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  when  he  mounted  the  old  broken- 
down  hobby  of  the  Coronation  Oath  and  cut  a  curvet  that 
alarmed  his  friends  and  his  enemies,  assembled  the  Tories  at 
Apsley  House,  and  there,  resuming  his  own  good  sense, 
though  not  very  consistently,  made  them  a  speech,  and  told 
them  that  some  such  measure  must  be  passed,  for  nothing 
else  could  save  the  Irish  Church  :  that  there  were  things  in 
this  Bill  that  he  did  not  approve  of  at  all,  but  he  could  not 
resist  its  going  into  committee,  and  he  finished  by  announcing 
that  he  should  either  vote  for  it  or  not  vote  at  all,  according 
to  circumstances.  Lyndhurst  goes  on  the  circuit  on  Wednes- 
day, so  that  though  there  will  be  a  division  there  will  be  a 
large  majority  for  the  Bill,  which  is  the  best  thing  that  could 
happen.  Stanley  said  there  would  be  a  great  speech  from 
Lord  Grey,  talked  of  his  power  in  that  line,  thought  his  re- 
ply at  five  in  the  morning  on  the  Catholic  question  the  most 
perfect  speech  that  ever  was  made.  He  would  rather  have 
made  it  than  four  of  Brougham's.  He  gave  the  following  in- 
stance of  Lord  Grey's  readiness  and  clear-headed  accuracy: 
In  one  of  the  debates  on  the  West  India  question,  he  went  to 
Stanley,  who  was  standing  under  the  gallery,  and  asked  him 
on  what  calculation  he  had  allotted  the  sum  of  twenty 
millions.  Stanley  explained  to  him  a  complicated  series  of 
figures,  of  terms  of  years,  interest,  compound  interest,  value 
of  labor,  etc.,  after  which  Lord  Grey  went  back  to  his  place, 
rose,  and  went  through  the  whole  with  as  much  clearness 
and  precision  as  if  all  these  details  had  been  all  along 
familiar  to  his  mind.  It  is  very  extraordinary  that  he  should 
unite  so  much  oratorical  and  Parliamentary  power  with  such 
weakness  of  character.  He  is  a  long  way  from  a  great  man 
altogether. 

I  met  the  Duke  in  the  evening  at  the  Duchess  of  Canniz- 
zaro's,  talked  of  Napier's  affair,  at  which  he  was  extremely 
amused,  though  he  thinks  it  a  very  bad  thing,  and  not  the 
least  bad  part  of  it  that  Napier  should  be  lost  to  the  service, 
so  distinguished  as  he  is.  It  was  he  who  in  1803  (I  believe) 
was  the  cause  of  the  capture  of  a  French  squadron  by  Sir 
Alexander  Cochrane.  The  English  fell  in  with  and  cleared 
the  French  fleet,  but  Napier  in  a  sloop  outsailed  the  rest,  and 
firing  upon  the  stern  of  the  French  Admiral's  flagship,  so 


1833.]  MALIBRAN  IN  "  SONNAMBULA."  179 

damaged  her  (contriving  by  skillful  evolutions  to  avoid  being 
hurt  himself)  that  the  rest  of  the  ships  were  obliged  to  haul- 
to,  to  save  the  Admiral's  ship,  which  gave  time  to  the  British 
squadron  to  come  up,  when  they  took  four  out  of  the  five  sail. 
The  Whigs  all  talk  of  this  action  as  decisive  of  the  Portuguese 
contest ;  the  Duke  says  it  is  impossible  to  say  what  the  moral 
effect  may  be,  but  in  a  military  point  of  view  it  will  not  have 
much  influence  upon  it.  Lucien  Bonaparte  was  there,  and 
was  introduced  to  the  Duke.  He  laughed  and  said,  "  He 
shook  hands  with  me,  and  we  were  as  intimate  as  if  we  had 
known  each  other  all  our  lives  ! "  He  said  he  had  likewise 
called  on  Joseph,  who  had  called  on  him,  but  they  had  never 
met ;  he  added  that  some  civilities  had  passed  between  them 
in  Spain.  Before  the  battle  of  Salamanca  he  had  regularly 
intercepted  the  French  correspondence,  and  as  one  of  the 
King's  daughters  was  ill  at  Paris,  and  daily  intelligence  came 
of  her  health,  he  always  sent  it  to  him.  He  did  not  forward 
the  letters,  because  they  contained  other  matters,  but  he  sent 
a  flag  every  day  to  the  outposts,  who  said,  "  Allez  dire  au  Roi 
que  sa  fille  se  porte  mieux,"  or  as  it  might  be.  There  was 
Lucien  running  down-stairs  to  look  for  his  carriage,  one 
brother  of  Napoleon  who  refused  to  be  a  king,  and  another 
who  was  King  of  Naples,  and  afterward  King  of  Spain,  both 
living  as  private  gentlemen  in  England ! 

July  16th. — The  Cabinet  met  at  the  instance  of  Lord  John 
Russell  to  take  into  consideration  Lord  Hill's  not  voting  on 
Brougham's  Local  Courts  Bill.  Nothing  came  of  it,  and  it  is 
extremely  absurd  when  their  own  people  continually  vote  as 
they  please — Duncannon,  Ellice,  Charles  Grey,  etc.  On  Sun- 
day I  went  to  hear  Mr.  Blount  preach.  He  is  very  popular, 
and  has  a  great  deal  of  merit,  not  so  clever  as  Thorpe,  not  so 
eloquent  as  Anderson,  but  with  a  great  appearance  of  zeal  and 
sincerity,  and  he  is  very  conscientious  and  disinterested,  for 
he  refused  the  living  of  Chelsea  (which  Lord  Cadogan  offered 
him)  because  he  thought  he  could  not  discharge  the  duties  be- 
longing to  it  together  with  those  of  his  present  cure.  Went 
last  night  to  hear  Malibran  in  the  "  Sonnambula,"  a  fine  piece 
of  acting  and  fine  singing. 

July  18th. — I  fell  in  with  Sir  Robert  Peel  yesterday  in  the 
Park,  and  rode  with  him  for  an  hour  or  two,  never  having  had 
so  much  conversation  with  him  before  in  my  life.  He  was 
very  agreeable,  told  me  that  he  had  just  come  from  the  Police 
Committee,  when  a  member  of  one  of  the  political  unions  had 


[80  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

been  under  examination,  who  had  acknowledged  that  they 
were  provided  with  arms,  and  exercised  themselves  in  their 
use,  to  be  ready  for  the  struggle  which  they  thought  was  fast 
approaching.  This  evidence  will  appear  in  the  Report  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  but  what  will  not  appear  is  that  an  at- 
tempt was  made  (by  Mr.  Charles  Buller  especially)  to  prevent 
its  being  elicited,  and  the  aforesaid  gentleman  endeavored  to 
put  down  Peel,  who  drew  it  out.  The  room  was  cleared,  and 
they  had  an  angry  discussion,  but  Peel  insisted  upon  asking 
his  question,  and  carried  his  point,  even  in  this  Radical  Com- 
mittee. It  seems  to  have  been  very  curious,  and  the  man  was 
nothing  loath  to  say  all  he  knew.  Peel  thinks  very  ill  of  every 
thing.  I  asked  him  if  there  was  no  way  of  putting  down  the 
Repeal  Union.  He  said  none,  and  that  they  had  found  the 
impossibility  of  doing  so  in  Ireland,  except  by  investing  the 
Lord-Lieutenant  with  extraordinary  powers ;  talked  of  the 
Government  and  its  strange  way  of  going  on,  spoke  highly  of 
Stanley  in  all  ways. 

Althorp's  retirement  seems  certain,  and  if  the  Govern- 
ment goes  on  Stanley  will  be  leader,  but  unless  he  puts  it  all 
on  a  different  footing  it  must  break  up,  and  unless  the  Gov- 
ernment people  can  be  brought  under  better  discipline  it  will 
fall  to  pieces,  for  nobody  will  support  it  on  that  motion  of 
Wrottesley's  for  a  call  of  the  House.  Both  Stanley  and 
Althorp  deprecated  it  in  the  strongest  way,  in  the  name  of 
their  colleagues  as  well  as  their  own,  with  whom  Stanley  said 
they  had  consulted,  and  that  they  felt  it  would  materially  em- 
barrass the  Government  if  persisted  in,  and  after  this  Duncan- 
non,  Kennedy,  and  Charles  Grey,  voted  for  the  call,  Ellice  and 
Poulett  Thomson  staid  away.  The  other  night  (I  forget  on 
what  question)  Ellice  voted  one  way  and  Stanley  the  other, 
and  the  former  said  to  the  latter,  as  he  was  going  out  of  the 
house,  "  You  will  see  if  the  boys  don't  go  with  me  instead  of 
with  you."  The  vote  of  the  night  before  last  against  sine- 
cures was  carried  in  a  thin  House,  only  one  Cabinet  Minister 
present  (Althorp),  no  pains  taken  to  secure  a  majority,  and  he 
(Althorp)  saying  that  it  signified  more  to  the  Tories  than  to 
him,  and  that  they  ought  to  have  come  down  and  rejected  it. 
Peel  thinks  it  of  great  importance,  and  very  difficult  to  get 
out  of.  However,  it  will  be  got  out  of  by  some  particular  case 
being  tried,  on  which  Hume,  or  whoever  brings  it  forward, 
will  be  beaten,  and  then  it  will  sleep  for  a  time ;  but  there 
stands  and  will  stand  the  resolution  on  the  journals,  and  the 


1833.]  THE  SAINTS  AND  EMANCIPATION.  181 

House  of  Commons  has  admitted  the  principle  of  dealing  with 
actual  vested  interests,  and  not  confining  their  operation  to 
the  future. 

There  seems  every  probability  of  Stanley's  West  India  Bill 
being  thrown  out.  The  Saints,  who  at  first  had  agreed  to 
support  it,  object  to  pay  the  twenty  millions  for  emancipa- 
tion to  take  place  twelve  years  hence,  and  the  present  condi- 
tion of  the  question  seems  to  be  that  all  parties  are  dissatisfied 
with  it, 'and  there  is  nearly  a  certainty  that  it  will  be  received 
with  horror  by  the  planters,  while  the  slaves  will  no  longer 
work  when  they  find  the  fiat  of  their  freedom  (however  condi- 
tional or  distant  the  final  consummation  may  be)  has  at  length 
gone  forth. 

July  20th. — I  dropped  into  the  House  of  Lords  last  night, 
and  heard  the  Bishop  of  London  reply  severally  to  the  Duke 
of  Newcastle  and  Lord  Winchelsea,  the  first  of  whom  muttered, 
and  the  latter  bellowed  something  I  could  not  hear,  but  I 
gathered  that  the  last  was  on  the  subject  of  the  King's  letter 
to  the  Bishops.  The  Bishop  made  very  pertinent  answers  to 
both,  but  the  Duke  of  Wellington  got  up  after  Winchelsea, 
and  entreated  nothing  might  be  said  upon  the  subject,  and  put 
down  discussion  with  that  authority  which  the  Tories  dare 
not  resist,  and  which  he  exercised  on  this  occasion  with  the 
good  sense  and,  above  all,  consideration  for  public  convenience 
and  disdain  of  party  rancor  which  distinguish  him  above  all 
men  I  have  ever  seen,  and  which  compel  one  to  admire  him 
in  spite  of  the  extraordinary  things  he  occasionally  says  and 
does. 

George  Villiers  is  going  Minister  to  Madrid,  instead  of 
Addington,  who  is  so  inefficient  they  are  obliged  to  recall 
him,  and  at  this  moment  Madrid  is  the  most  important  diplo- 
matic mission,  with  reference  to  the  existing  and  the  prospective 
state  of  things.  The  Portuguese  contest,  the  chance  of  the 
King  of  Spain's  death  and  a  disputed  succession,  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  South  American  colonies,  and  commercial  arrange- 
ments with  this  country,  present  a  mass  of  interests  which 
demand  considerable  dexterity  and  judgment ;  besides,  Adding- 
ton is  a  Tory,  and  does  not  act  in  the  spirit  of  this  Govern- 
ment, so  they  will  recall  him  without  ceremony.  There  is 
another  Embassador  (Frederick  Lamb)  whose  principles  are 
equally  at  variance  with  those  of  Palmerston,  and  who  is  com- 
pletely be-Metternich'd,  but  his  removal  is  out  of  the  ques- 
tion ;  he  knows  it,  and  no  doubt  conducts  himself  accordingly. 


L82  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

George  Villiers  told  me  that  he  touched  incidentally  one  day 
with  Palmerston  on  Lamb's  conduct  in  some  matter  relating 
to  Lord  Granville,  and  he  found  that  it  was  sacred  ground,  and 
he  only  got,  "  Ah,  aw — yes,  Metternich  is,  I  suppose,  too  old 
to  mend  now." 

July  2~Lst. — The  Duke  of  Wellington  did  not  vote  on 
Friday  night,  but  he  made  a  bitter  speech  against  Govern- 
ment, and  attacked  Lord  Anglesey  very  unnecessarily,  when 
Melbourne  retorted  on  him  very  well.  Lord  Grey  s  reply 
appears  to  have  been  exceedingly  good.  I  met  the  Duke  of 
Richmond  last  night,  and  talked  to  him  about  the  prospects 
of  Government,  and  suggested  that  if  Stanley  (when  Althorp 
retires)  does  not  make  it  a  sine  qua  non  that  better  discipline 
should  be  observed  in  their  ranks,  the  Government  cannot 
go  on.  He  agreed,  and  said  Stanley  would,  but  he  thought 
the  House  of  Lords  were  going  on  in  such  a  way  that  before 
three  years  there  would  be  none.  It  appears  to  me  totally 
impossible  for  Stanley  or  anybody  to  go  on  without  re- 
modeling the  Government,  and  one  of  his  difficulties  would 
be  in  getting  rid  of  Richmond  himself.  He  is  utterly  in- 
capable, entirely  ignorant,  and  his  pert  smartness,  saying 
sharp  things,  cheering  offensively,  have  greatly  exasperated 
many  people  against  him  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
these  feelings  of  anger  have  been  heightened  by  his  taking 
frequent  opportunities  of  comporting  himself  with  acrimony 
toward  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  though  he  always  professes 
great  veneration  for  him,  and  talks  as  if  he  had  constantly 
abstained  from,  any  thing  like  incivility  or  disrespect  toward 
him.  It  is  remarkable  certainly  that  his  colleagues  appear 
to  entertain  a  higher  opinion  of  him  than  he  deserves,  and 
you  hear  of  one  or  another  saying,  "  Oh,  you  don't  know  the 
Duke  of  Richmond."  He  has,  in  fact,  that  weight  which  a 
man  can  derive  from  being  positive,  obstinate,  pertinacious, 
and  busy,  but  his  understanding  lies  in  a  nut-shell,  and  his 
information  in  a  pin's-head.  He  is,  however,  good-humored, 
a  good  fellow,  and  personally  liked,  particular!}'  by  Stanley 
and  Graham,  who  are  of  his  own  age,  and  have  both  the  same 
taste  for  sporting  and  gay  occupations.  The  Tories  threaten 
mighty  things  in  the  Committee,  but  I  don't  think  they  will 
attempt  much. 

July  24:th. — Divisions  in  both  Houses  last  night.  The 
Duke  of  Wellington  proposed  an  important  amendment 
(which  he  would  afterward  have  withdrawn,  but  his  friends 


1833.]  THE  SUSPENSION  CLAUSE.  183 

would  not  let  him),  and  he  was  beaten  by  fourteen.  A  great 
division  for  Government  in  the  House  of  Lords.  In  the  Com- 
mons 166  minority  for  triennial  Parliaments,  and  by  every 
sort  of  whipping  and  Billy  Holmes's  assistance  a  majority, 
but  only  of  sixty  or  seventy ;  fine  work  this. 

July  25th-26th.     Half-past  two  in  the  morning. — Just 
come  home,  having  heard  of  the  division  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  in  which  Ministers  were  beaten  on  what  they  call  the 
Suspension  clause  by  two.     Alvanley,  Belhaven,  and  Clanri- 
carde,  got  there  too  late.     Gower  could  not  attend,  nor  Lord 
Granville.      Lyndhurst    came   all    the    way    from    Norwich 
(being  on  the  circuit)  to  vote.     The  question  is,  what  Minis- 
ters  will  do — go  on  with  the  Bill,  or  throw  it  up,  resign, 
make  Peers,  or  what  ?     Nothing  can  be  more  silly  than  the 
amendment,  although  it  may  be  questioned  whether  it  sig- 
nifies very  materially ;  but  the  light  in   which  Ministers  see 
it  is   this :    are   they   to   submit   night  after    night    to    the 
vexatious  insolence  of  the  Tories,  who  are  constantly  on  the 
watch  to  find  some  vulnerable  point,  and  without  intending 
or  daring  to  throw  over  their  great  measures,  to  jpangle  their 
details  as  much  as  they  can  venture  to  do,  and  hold  the  Gov- 
ernment in  a  sort  of  subjugation  and  in  a  state  of  sufferance  ? 
The  Tory  lords   are  perfectly  rabid,  and   reckless  of  conse- 
quences,  regardless   of    the   embarrassment   they   cause   the 
King,   and   of  the    aggravation    of  a   state   of    things    they 
already  think  very  bad,  they  care  for  nothing  but  the  silly 
vain  pleasure  of  beating  the  Government,  every  day  affording 
fresh  materials  for  the  assaults  that  are  made  upon  them  by 
the  press,  and  fresh  cause  for  general  odium  and  contempt. 
The  Duke  of  Wellington  has  no  power  over  them  for  good 
purposes,  and  they  will  only  follow  him  when  he  will  lead 
them  on  to  some  rash  and  desperate  enterprise.     This  event 
has  affected  the  people  differently  according  to  their  several 
views  and  opinions,  but  all  are  in  eager  curiosity  to  see  what 
the  Government  will  do. 

In  the  House  of  Commons  things  are  no  better  than  in 
the  House  of  Lords.  Stanley  was  nearly  beaten  on  the  Ap- 
prenticeship clause  in  the  West  Indian  Bill  on  Wednesday 
night,  Macaulay  opposing  him ;  so  yesterday  morning  he 
came  down  to  the  House  and  gave  it  up.  It  is  remarkable 
that  he  made  an  admirable  speech  in  defense  of  his  clause, 
was  unusually  and  enthusiastically  cheered,  Macaulay's  speech 
falling  very  flat,  and  to  all  appearance  the  whole  House  with 


184  JREIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

Stanley,  yet  upon  division  he  only  carried  it  by  some  seven  or 
eight  votes.     It  is  said  that  after  the  vote  he  could  not  do 
otherwise  than  give  it  up,  but  that  if  he  had  taken  a  higher 
tone  in  his  speech,  and  treated  it  as  a  compact  fixed  and 
agreed  upon,  which  nothing  could  shake,  and  to  which  he  was 
irrevocably  pledged,  he  would  have  carried  the  House  with 
him,  and  have  got  a  larger  majority.     But  the  truth  is  that 
the  House  of  Commons  is  in  such  a  state  that  it  is  next  to 
impossible  to  say  what  Ministers  can  or  ought  to  do,  or  what 
the  House  will  do.     There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  great  party 
knit  together   by   community   of  opinion,   "  idem   sentientea 
de  republica."      The  Government  conciliate   no  attachment, 
command   no   esteem   and   respect,    and  have    no  following. 
Althorp  is  liked,  Stanley  admired,  but  people  devote  them- 
selves to  neither ;  every  man  is  thinking  of  what  he  shall  say 
to  his  constituents,  and  how  his  vote  will  be  taken,  and  every 
thing  goes  on  (as  it  were)  from  hand   to  mouth ;  by  fits  and 
starts  the  House  of  Commons  seem  rational  and  moderate, 
and  then  they  appear  one  day  subservient  to  the  Ministers, 
another    rifttous,   unruly,   and   fierce,   ready   to   abolish   the 
Bishops  and  crush  the  House  of  Lords,  and  to  vote  any  thing 
that  is  violent.     The  Tories  in  the  House  of  Commons  are 
lukewarm,   angry,  frightened ;  they  say,   "  Why  should  we 
come  and  support  a  Government  that  won't  support  itself  ?  " 
The  Government  from  weakness  or  facility,  or  motives  of  per- 
sonal feeling  and  partiality,  suffers  itself  to  be  bearded  and 
thwarted  by  its  own  people,  and  does  nothing.     Duncannon, 
on  the  triennial  motion  the  other  night,  staid  in  the  House  of 
Lords  and  would  not  vote ;  there  are  some  half-dozen  of  them 
whose  votes  the  Ministerial  bench  cannot  count  upon.     Then 
it  is  no  small  aggravation  to  the   present  difficult  state  of 
things  that  Stanley  does  not  appear  to  be  a  man  of  much  moral 
political  firmness  and  courage,   a   timid  politician,  ignavus 
adversum  lupos.     He  is  bold  and  spirited  against  individuals, 
but  timid  against  bodies,  and  with  respect  to  results.     La- 
bouchere  went  to  him  some  time  ago,  and  told  him  that  it  was 
evident  a  feeling  was  growing  up  in  the  House  of  Commons 
against  this  Apprenticeship  clause,  and  that  he  had  better 
make  up  his  mind  early  what  course  he  should  pursue,  that  if 
he  meant  to  stand  to  it  they  would  support  him,  but  if  not, 
he  had  better  give  it  up  early  and  from  foresight  rather  than 
from  necessity  at  last,  but  above  all,  not  to  drag  them  through 
the  mire  by   making  them  support  him,  and  then  throwing 


1833.]  DINNER  WITH   THE  BONAPARTES.  185 

them  over.  He  declared  he  would  stand  to  his  clause.  They 
supported  him,  and  he  threw  them  over.  This  will  not  do  for 
a  man  who  aspires  to  be  leader,  and  Sandon  told  me  last  night 
that  men  would  not  be  led  by  him,  in  spite  of  his  talents,  that 
when  Althorp  went  under  Stanley's  banner  the  friends  of 
Government  would  not  enlist.  God  only  knows  how  it  all 
will  end,  and  out  of  such  a  mass  of  confusion,  of  so  much 
violence  and  folly  and  weakness,  acd  the  working  of  so  many 
bad  passions,  what  will  result,  but  any  day  the  chance  be- 
comes less  of  the  elements  of  disorder  being  resolved  into  a 
state  of  tranquillity  and  good  government.  It  is  every  day 
more  apparent  that  with  such  a  House  of  Commons,  so 
elected,  so  acted  upon,  no  Government  can  feel  secure ;  none 
can  undertake  with  confidence  to  carry  on  the  affairs  of  the 
country.  It  is  difficult  to  describe  the  state  of  agitation  into 
which  the  minds  of  people  of  all  persuasions  are  thrown  by 
the  continual  recurrence  of  these  little  events,  of  the  feeling 
of  insecurity,  of  doubt,  of  apprehension  which  pervades  all 
classes.  Nobody  thinks  the  present  Government  can  go  on,  at 
the  same  time  they  can  see  no  party  and  no  individual  who 
could  go  on  as  well  if  they  were  to  retire.  The  present  House 
of  Commons  it  is  found  impossible  to  manage,  but  it  is  be- 
lieved that  in  the  event  of  a  dissolution  another  would  be 
much  worse  ;  in  short,  all  is  chaos,  confusion,  and  uncertainty, 
and  the  only  thing  in  which  all  parties  agree  is  that  things  are 
very  bad,  and  every  day  getting  worse. 

I  dined  the  day  before  yesterday  with  old  Lady  Cork, 
to  meet  the  Bonapartes.  There  were  Joseph,  Lucien,  Lucien's 
daughter,  the  widow  of  Louis  Bonaparte,  Hortense's  son,1  the 
Dudley  Stuarts,  Belhavens,  Rogers,  Lady  Clarendon,  and 
Lady  Davy  and  myself;  not  very  amusing,  but  curious  to  see 
these  two  men,  one  of  whom  would  not  be  a  King,  when  he 
might  have  chosen  almost  any  crown  he  pleased  (conceive, 
for  instance,  having  refused  the  kingdom  of  Naples),  and  the 
other,  who  was  first  King  of  Naples  and  then  King  of  Spain, 
commanded  armies,  and  had  the  honor  of  being  defeated  at 
Vittoria  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  There  they  sat,  these 
brothers  of  Napoleon,  who  once  trampled  upon  all  Europe, 
and  at  whose  feet  the  potentates  of  the  earth  bowed,  two 
simple,  plain-looking,  civil,  courteous,  smiling  gentlemen. 
They  say  Lucien  is  a  very  agreeable  man,  Joseph  nothing. 
Joseph  is  a  caricature  of  Napoleon  in  his  latter  days,  at  least 
1  [This  must  have  been  the  Emperor  Napoleon  III.] 


186  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

so  I  guess  from  the  pictures.  He  is  taller,  stouter,  with  the 
same  sort  of  face,  but  without  the  expression,  and  particu- 
larly without  the  eagle  eye.  Lucien  looked  as  if  he  had  once 
been  like  him,  that  is,  his  face  in  shape  is  like  the  pictures  of 
Napoleon  when  he  was  thin  and  young,  but  Lucien  is  a  very 
large,  tall  man.  They  talked  little,  but  staid  on  in  the  even- 
ing, when  there  was  a  party,  and  received  very  civilly  all  the 
people  who  were  presented  to  them.  There  was  not  the 
slightest  affectation  of  royalty  in  either.  Lucien,  indeed,  had 
no  occasion  for  any,  but  a  man  who  had  ruled  over  two  king- 
doms might  be  excused  for  betraying  something  of  his  former 
condition,  but,  on  the  contrary,  every  thing  regal  that  he  ever 
had  about  him  seemed  to  be  merged  in  his  American  citizen- 
ship, and  he  looked  more  like  a  Yankee  cultivator  than  a 
King  of  Spain  and  the  Indies.  Though  there  is  nothing  to 
see  in  Joseph,  who  is,  I  believe,  a  very  mediocre  personage,  I 
could  not  help  gazing  at  him,  and  running  over  in  my  mind 
the  strange  events  in  which  lie  had  been  concerned  in  the 
course  of  his  life  and  regarding  him  as  a  curiosity,  and  proba- 
bly as  the  most  extraordinary  living  instance  of  the  freaks  of 
fortune  and  instability  of  human  grandeur. 

The  Duke  of  Sutherland  is  dead,  a  leviathan  of  wealth.  I 
believe  he  is  the  richest  individual  who  ever  died,  and  I 
should  like  to  know  what  his  property  amounts  to,  out  of 
pure  curiosity. 

July  27th. — This  affair  in  the  House  of  Lords  blew  over. 
The  Patriots  at  Brookes's  were  loud  in  their  indignation,  and 
talked  nonsense  about  dignity  and  resignation,  and  so  forth, 
but  Lord  Grey  took  the  better  course,  and  came  down  to  the 
House  with  a  lecture,  conceived  in  mild  yet  firm  language, 
and  announced  his  intention  of  going  on  with  the  Bill.  Ac- 
cordingly they  got  through  the  Committee  last  night  without 
further  obstruction.  The  amendment  is  in  fact  so  trivial  that 
I  don't  think  he  will  attempt  to  reestablish  the  original  clause 
on  the  report,  and  if  he  does  not,  the  Commons  (I  am  told) 
will  not  either. 

August  1th. — At  Goodwood  from  Saturday  se'nnight  to 
Saturday  last.  Magnificent  weather,  numerous  assemblage, 
tolerable  racing,  but  I  did  not  win  the  great  cup,  which  I 
ought  to  have  won,  a  most  vile  piece  of  ill-luck,  but  good 
fortune  seems  to  have  deserted  me,  and  the  most  I  can  do  is 
not  to  lose. 

George  Villiers  is  appointed  to  Madrid,  but  he  tells  me 


1833.]  CONVERSATION   WITH   LORD   GREY.  1§7 

ilr.it  he  can  neither  see  nor  hear  from  Palmerston,  that  though 
his  appointment  is  in  everybody's  mouth  it  has  never  been 
notified  to  him.  All  this  negligence  is  because  our  Foreign 
Secretary  is  engaged  in  the  conferences,  in  which,  however, 
he  gives  no  greater  satisfaction  to  those  he  is  concerned  with, 
for  Talleyrand  complains  that  he  invariably  makes  them  wait 
from  one  to  two  hours,  and  Dedel  says  that  his  manner  is  so 
insulting  toward  the  Dutch  nation  and  King,  and  that  on 
every  occasion  he  acts  with  so  much  partiality  toward  Bel- 
gium, that  it  is  with  the  greatest  difficulty  he  can  transact 
business  with  him  at  all.  They  say  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
has  scarcely  missed  a  day  during  this  session  in  his  attendance 
on  the  House  of  Lords,  always  in  his  place  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end  of  the  debates,  speaking  and  evidently  pre- 
paring himself  on  every  subject,  doing  duty  as  the  head  of  a 
party. 

August  8th.~ — Met  Lord  Grey  in  the  street ;  he  said  this 
session  had  nearly  done  him  up,  and  he  must  have  repose ; 
he  talked  of  Portugal,  of  the  desirableness  of  getting  rid  of 
Pedro,  and  of  putting  Palmella  at  the  head  of  the  Govern- 
ment. I  said  he  must  take  care  they  did  not  establish  too 
liberal  a  Government.  He  replied  the  Portuguese  certainly 
were  not  fit  for  any  such  thing,  and  that  the  constitution  had 
undoubtedly  done  all  the  mischief;  spoke  of  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington, and  of  his  being  always  in  the  House  of  Lords,  speak- 
ing on  any  thing,  and  generally  not  well,  that  he  had  made  a 
most  tiresome  bad  speech  on  the  India  Charter  question,  etc. 
Brougham's  Privy  Council  Bill  has,  I  perceive,  passed  the 
House  of  Commons,  having  gone  through  both  Houses  without 
a  syllable  said  upon  it  in  either. 

George  Villiers  is  at  last  acknowledged  Minister  to  Madrid. 
He  told  me  he  was  with  Palmerston  at  his  house  yesterday 
morning,  and  was  much  struck  with  his  custom  of  receiving 
all  his  numerous  visitors  and  applicants  in  the  order  in  which 
they  arrive,  be  their  rank  what  it  may.  Neumann  told  him 
he  had  never  known  him  vary  in  this  practice,  or  deviate  from 
it  in  anybody's  favor.  It  is  a  merit.  There  seems  little  dan- 
ger of  any  movement  on  the  part  of  Spain,  for  Zea  Bermudez 
(Palmerston  told  George  Villiers)  is  struck  to  the  earth  by  the 
events  in  Portugal,  and  only  anxious  to  curry  favor  with 
England. 

August  \bth. — At  Council  yesterday  to  swear  in  James 
Parke  and  Bosanquet  (who  did  not  come)  Privy  Councilors, 


188  REIGN  CF  WILLIAM  IY.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

in  order  to  carry  into  operation  the  Chancellor's  new  Bill 
for  the  establishment  of  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy 
Council. 

August  20th. — To  Stoke  on  Saturday  with  Creevey  and 
Lemarchant,  the  Chancellor's  secretary.  The  Chancellor  and 
others  of  the  Ministry  were  to  have  come,  but  they  all  dined 
at  Blackwall.  Brougham,  Plunket,  and  John  Russell,  came 
the  next  day.  Brougham  is  not  so  talkative  as  he  was ;  his 
dignities,  his  labors,  and  the  various  cares  of  his  situation, 
have  dashed  his  gayety,  and  pressed  down  his  once  elastic 
spirits ;  however,  he  was*  not  otherwise  than  cheerful  and 
lively.  Plunket  I  never  met  before  ;  he  was  pretty  much  at 
his  ease,  and  talked  sufficiently  without  exhibiting  any  thing 
remarkable.  Lemarchant  is  a  clever,  industrious  fellow,  whom 
I  remember  at  Eton.  The  Chancellor's  secretaryship  must  be 
no  sinecure,  and  he  has  particularly  distinguished  himself  by 
his  reports  of  the  debates  in  the  House  of  Commons.  He  goes 
there  every  night,  and  forwards  to  the  Chancellor  from  time 
to  time  an  account  of  the  debate,  and  the  manner  of  it,  very 
well  executed  indeed.  He  talked  to  me  of  Brougham's  labors 
and  their  intensity,  which  put  me  in  mind  of  his  gasconading 
to  Sefton  a  year  or  two  ago  about  his  idleness,  and  finding 
the  Great  Seal  a  mere  plaything;  Lemarchant  said,  that 
by  severe  and  constant  application  he  had  made  himself  very 
tolerably  acquainted  with  equity  law,  and  very  extensively 
with  cases.  I  find  from  Sefton  that  he  means  to  propose 
next  year  that  his  salary  should  be  reduced  to  £8,000  a 
year,  and  that  the  new  Equity  Judges  should  be  paid  out  of 
what  he  now  has.  I  believe  he  is  liberal  about  money,  and  net 
careless,  but  I  have  some  doubts  whether  this  project  will  be 
executed.  Lemarchant  told  me  that  the  cause  of  Sugden's  in- 
veterate animosity  against  Brougham  was  this — that  in  a  de- 
bate in  the  House  of  Commons,  Sugden,  in  his  speech,  took 
occasion  to  speak  of  Mr.  Fox,  and  said  that  he  had  no  great 
respect  for  his  authority,  on  which  Brougham  merely  said,  loud 
enough  to  be  heard  all  over  the  House,  and  in  that  peculiar 
tone  which  strikes  like  a  dagger,  "  Poor  Fox  ! "  The  words, 
the  tone,  were  electrical,  everybody  burst  into  roars  of  laugh- 
ter, Sugden  was  so  overwhelmed  that  he  said  afterward  it  was 
with  difficulty  he  could  go  on,  and  he  vowed  that  he  never 
could  forgive  this  sarcasm. 

Sefton  talked  to  me  of  Brougham's  reluctance  when  the 
Government  was  formed  to  take  the  Great  Seal ;  after  they 


1833.]  LORD   BROUGHAM  AS   CHANCELLOR.  189 

had  offered  him  the  Attorney-Generalship,  which  he  so  in- 
dignantly refused,  they  sent  Sefton  to  cajole  him  and  get  him 
to  take  the  Seal.  He  wanted  to  be  made  Master  of  the 
Rolls,  and  left  in  the  House  of  Commons,  the  Seal  being 
put  in  Commission.  This  they  would  not  hear  of,  naturally 
enough  not  choosing  to  exist  at  his  mercy  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  rely  upon  his  doubtful  and  capricious  support. 
It  was  very  well  for  him  to  act  the  part  of  Atlas,  and  bear 
the  Government  on  his  shoulders,  but  they  shrewdly  enough 
guessed  that  they  would  not  ride  on  them  very  comfortably, 
that  they  would  be  considerably  jolted,  and  perhaps  at  last 
shoved  off.  He,  on  the  other  hand,  would  not  suffer  anybody 
to  be  Chancellor  but  himself;  and  at  last,  with  many  mis- 
givings, he  yielded  to  the  gentle  violence  which  would  make 
him  the  first  officer  of  the  Crown.  Great  was  his  lamentation 
at  this  necessity.  "  How,"  he  said,  "  am  I  fallen  !  As  mem- 
ber for  Yorkshire  in  the  House  of  Commons,  what  a  position 
was  mine ! "  Sefton  tried  to  comfort  him  by  representing  that 
"  the  fall "  upon  the  woolsack  was  somewhat  of  the  softest, 
and  that  a  few  years  ago  he  would  not  have  considered  it  so 
grievous  a  misfortune  if  it  had  been  foretold  him  that  he 
should  be  seated  there  at  such  a  time. 

After  dinner  on  Sunday  Brougham  talked  of  the  Reform 
Bill  and  its  first  appearance  in  the  House  of  Commons.  He 
said  that  once  allowed  to  take  root  there  it  could  not  be 
crushed,  and  that  their  only  opportunity  was  thrown  away 
by  the  Tories.  Had  Peel  risen  at  once  and  declared  that  he 
would  not  even  discuss  such  a  measure,  tha,t  it  was  revolution, 
and  opposed  its  being  brought  in,  he  would  have  thrown  it 
out,  and  if  he  had  then  come  down  with  a  moderate  measure, 
it  would  have  satisfied  the  country  for  the  time.  This  is  ex- 
actly what  William  Banks  said  to  me  last  year,  and  the  very 
thing  Peel  had  intended  to  do,  and  from  which  he  was  deterred 
by  Granville  Somerset.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  has  con- 
tinued to  attend  in  the  House  of  Lords  day  after  day,  pro- 
posing alterations  and  amendments  to  all  the  Bills,  evidently 
reading  hard,  and  preparing  himself  for  each  occasion,  always 
loaded  with  papers.  Lyndhurst  said  to  somebody,  "  I  shall 
attend  no  more,  what's  the  use  of  it  ?  The  Duke  comes  down 
every  day,  and  tries  to  make  the  Bills  better;  if  I  could  make 
them  worse  I  would  come  too." 

August  22d. — Called  on  Madame  de  Lieven  yesterday, 
who  is  just  come  back  from  Petersburg,  rayonnante  at  her 


[90  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

reception  and  treatment.  The  Emperor  went  out  to  sea  to 
meet  her,  took  her  into  his  own  boat ;  when  they  landed  he 
drove  her  to  the  palace,  and  carried  her  into  the  Empress's 
room,  who  was  en  chemise.  She  told  me  a  comical  anecdote 
illustrative  of  the  good-humor  of  the  Emperor  (who,  she  says, 
is  an  angel),  and  of  the  free  and  frank  reception  he  gives  to 
strangers.  In  the  midst  of  some  splendid  military  fetes, 
which  terminated  with  a  sham  siege  by  50,000  of  his  guards 
the  last  day,  word  was  brought  him  that  two  strange-looking 
men  had  presented  themselves  at  the  lines,  and  requested  to 
be  allowed  to  see  what  was  going  on.  They  said  they  were 
English,  had  come  from  Scotland  on  purpose  to  see  the  Rus- 
sian manoeuvres,  and  had  started  from  Petersburg  under  the 
direction  of  a  laquais  de  place,  who  had  conducted  them  to 
where  they  heard  the  firing  the  cannon.  The  Emperor" or- 
dered them  to  be  admitted,  received  them  with  the  greatest 
civility,  and  desired  apartments  to  be  prepared  for  them  in 
the  palace  (Peterhof),  at  the  same  time  inviting  them  to  dine 
with  him,  and  be  present  at  a  ball  he  gave  at  night.  She 
said  that  one  was  a  Don  Quixote  sort  of  figure  ;  they  called 
themselves  Johnstone.  The  Emperor  asked  her  if  she  knew 
them.  She  said  no,  but  that  there  were  many  of  that  name  in 
England.  There  they  remained,  enchanted,  astonished,  be- 
having, however,  perfectly  well.  After  seeing  all  the  sights, 
they  were  one  evening  led  into  a  great  hall,  where  all  sorts 
of  pastimes  were  going  on,  and  among  others  a  Montagne 
Russe  (of  which  the  Emperor  is  passionately  fond).  He  is  a 
very  tall  powerful  man,  and  his  way  is  to  be  placed  at  the  top 
of  the  machine,  when  a  man  mounts  astride  on  his  shoulders, 
and  another  on  his,  and  so  on  till  there  are  fourteen ;  when  a 
signal  is  given,  with  the  rapidity  of  lightning  down  they  go. 
On  this  occasion  the  Emperor  took  the  Johnstones  on  his 
back,  and  she  says  their  astonishment  at  the  position  they 
occupied,  and  at  the  rapidity  of  the  descent,  was  beyond 
every  thing  amusing.  They  were  asked  how  they  liked  it,  and 
they  said  they  thought  it  "  very  good  fun,"  and  should  like  to 
begin  again.  So  they  were  allowed  to  divert  themselves  in 
this  way  for  an  hour.  Bligh  told  her  afterward  that  these  men 
returned  to  Petersburg  their  heads  turned,  and  utterly  be- 
wildered with  such  an  unexpected  reception. 

In  her  serious  talk  the  Princess  said  that  the  Emperor  was 
full  of  moderation  and  desire  for  peace,  "  s'il  y  a  des  orages 
ce  ne  sera  pas  de  ce  c6t6  qu'ils  viendront,"  that  he  could  not 


1833.]  AFFAIRS   OF  PORTUGAL.  191 

comprehend  the  English  Parliament,  nor  the  sort  of  language 
which  was  held  there  about  him,  that  he  was  "  le  plus  ge'ne'- 
reux,  le  plus  humain,  le  meilleur  des  hommes,"  that  they 
believed  all  the  lies  which  were  "  delnte's  sur  les  affaires  de 
Pologne,  qui  enfin  est  notre  affaire,  qu'il  e'tait  peu  connu  ici, 
qu'elle  avait  vu  en  Russie  beaucoup  de  respects,  beaucoup 
d'amour  pour  1'Empereur,  et  voila  tout."  In  short,  she  is 
returned  in  a  state  of  intoxication,  and  her  adoration  for  the 
Emperor  is  only  exceeded  by  that  which  she  has  for  the 
Empress. 

August  24:th. — Matters  have  taken  a  bad  turn  in  Por- 
tugal. Bourmont  is  marching  on  Lisbon  with  18,000  men, 
"  regna  il  terror  nella  citta."  William  Russell,  in  a  fit  of 
enthusiasm,  says,  "the  capital  must  be  saved  even  at  the 
hazard  of  a  war."  Admiral  Parker  says  he  shall  land  1,200 
marines  and  make  them  occupy  the  forts.  Our  Government 
are  in  great  confusion  and  alarm,  and  have  dispatched  a 
swift  steamer  to  Parker  to  desire  him  to  do  no  such  thing ; 
but  the  steamer  will  probably  arrive  too  late,  and,  if  Bour- 
mont is  really  there,  we  shall  cut  a  pretty  figure  with  our  non- 
intervention, for  Parker  will  probably  have  to  surrender  the 
forts  to  Miguel.  I  dined  with  Talleyrand  yesterday,  who  is 
furious,  laughing  non-intervention  to  scorn ;  and  he  told  me 
he  had  for  the  last  ten  days  been  endeavoring  to  get  the  Gov- 
ernment to  take  a  decided  part.  What  he  advised  was,  that 
we  should  recognize  Donna  Maria  and  the  Regency  appointed 
by  the  Charter ;  that  is,  Donna  Isabella  Regent,  with  a  Coun- 
cil to  be  comprised  of  Palmella,  Villa  Flor,  and  any  other ; 
that  our  Minister  should  be  directed  to  acknowledge  no  other 
government,  and  at  the  same  time  concert  with  Palmella  that 
Pedro  should  be  sent  away,  and  the  constitution  be  suspended 
till  the  Queen  shall  be  of  age.  Pedro  has  committed,  since 
he  was  in  Lisbon,  every  folly  and  atrocity  he  could  squeeze 
into  so  small  a  space  of  time ;  imprisoning,  confiscating,  grant- 
ing monopolies,  attacking  the  Church,  and  putting  forth  the 
constitution  in  its  most  offensive  shape.  I  suspect  we  shall 
have  made  a  sad  mess  of  this  business. 

Just  come  from  the  Duke  of  Wellington ;  talked  about 
Portugal  and  th^  intercepted  letters;  the  writer  said  that  he 
(the  Duke)  had  told"  Neumann  he  approved  of  Bourmont's 
going,  whereas  he  thought  it  an  objectionable  nomination, 
because  he  had  formerly  deserted  from  the  Portuguese  ser- 


192  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

vice.1  He  had  never  had  any  communication  with  these 
agents,  and  did  not  believe  Aberdeen  had  had  any  either :  he 
said  Lisbon  was  more  defensible  than  Oporto,  but  required 
more  men.  Talking  of  Miguel,  the  Duke  related  that  he  was 
at  Strathfieldsaye  with  Palmella,  where  in  the  library  they 
were  settling  the  oath  that  Miguel  should  take,  Miguel  would 
pay  no  attention,  and,  instead  of  going  into  the  business  and 
saying  what  oath  he  would  consent  to  take  (the  question  was 
whether  he  should  swear  fidelity  to  Pedro  or  to  Maria),  he  sat 
flirting  with  the  Princess  Th6rese  Esterhazy.  The  Duke  said 
to  Palmella,  "  This  will  never  do,  he  must  settle  the  terms  of 
the  oath,  and,  if  he  is  so  careless  in  an  affair  of  such  moment, 
he  will  never  do  his  duty."  Palmella  said,  "  Oh,  leave  him  to 
us,  we  will  manage  him."  He  had  no  idea  of  overturning  the 
constitution  and  playing  false  when  he  went  there,  but  was 
persuaded  by  his  mother  and  terrified  by  the  lengths  to  which 
the  constitutional  party  was  disposed  to  go.  The  Duke  said 
the  Government  would  be  very  foolish  to  interfere  for  Pedro, 
who  was  a  ruffian,  and  for  the  constitution,  which  was  odious, 
and  that  Pedro  would  never  have  more  than  the  ground  he 
stood  on ;  talked  of  our  foreign  policy,  his  anxiety  for  peace, 
but  of  France  as  our  "  natural  enemy  !  "  and  of  the  importance 
of  maintaining  our  influence  in  Spain,  which,  so  long  as  we  did, 
we  should  have  nothing  to  fear  from  France. 

September  3d. — On  Wednesday  last,  when  the  King's 
speech  was  read,  there  was  no  Council.  Brougham  brought 
Sir  Alexander  Johnston,  formerly  Chief-Justice  in  Ceylon,  to 
be  sworn  a  Privy  Councilor  without  giving  any  notice,  conse- 
quently I  was  not  there.  The  King,  therefore,  comes  again 
to-morrow  on  purpose,  and,  what  is  unpleasant,  desired  a  Clerk 
of  the  Council  might  always  be  in  attendance  when  there  was 
any  thing  going  on.  This,  I  suppose,  his  Majesty  will  repeat 
to  me  himself  to-morrow.  The  Parliament  is  at  last  up ;  it 
was  a  fine  sight  the  day  the  King  went  down,  the  weather 
splendid,  and  park  full  of  people,  with  guards  mounted  and 
dismounted,  making  a  picturesque  show.  He  was  very  cooll  v 
received,  for  there  is  no  doubt  there  never  was  a  King  less 
respected.  George  IV.,  with  all  his  occasional  unpopularity, 
could  always  revive  the  external  appearance  of  loyalty  when 
he  gave  himself  the  trouble. 

1  Bourmont  was  an  emigrant,  and  went  into  the  Portuguese  service.  When 
Jimot  came  to  Portugal  he  joined  him,  was  taken  into  the  French  service,  in 
winch  he  continued  to  rise,  till  he  deserted  just  before  the  battle  of  Waterloo 
from  Napoleon  to  Louis  XVIII. 


1833.]  THE   REFORM   BILL   CARRIED.  193 

The  Parliament  is  up,  and  not  before  people  were  dead 
sick  of  it,  and  had  dropped  out  of  town  one  by  one,  till 
hardly  any  Parliament  was  left.  It  may  be  worth  while  to 
take  a  little  surve3r  of  the  present  condition  of  things  as  com- 
pared with  what  it  was  a  few  months  ago,  and  consider  at 
this  resting-time  what  has  been  the  practical  effect  of  the  great 
measure  of  Reform,  without  going  very  deeply  into  the  ques- 
tion. The  Reform  Bill  was  carried  in  toto,  the  Tories  having 
contrived  that  every  thing  that  was  attempted  should  be 
gained  by  the  Reformers.  No  excuse,  therefore,  was  left  for 
the  Parliament,  and,  if  "  the  people  "  did  not  choose  a  good* 
one,  it  was  their  own  fault.  It  was  chosen,  and  when  it  met 
was  found  to  be  composed  of  a  majority  of  supporters  of  the 
present  Government,  a  certain  number  of  Tories,  not  enough 
to  be  powerful,  and  many  Radicals,  who  soon  proved  to  be 
wholly  inefficient.  It  speedily  became  manifest  that  in  point 
of  ability  it  was  not  only  inferior  to  the  last,  but  perhaps  to 
any  Parliament  that  has  sat  for  many  years.  There  were  350 
new  members  (or  some  such  number),  but  not  one  man  among 
them  of  shining  or  remarkable  talent ;  Cobbett,  Silk  Bucking- 
ham, Roebuck,  and  such  men,  soon  found  their  level  and  sunk 
into  insignificance.  The  House  appeared  at  first  to  be  very 
unruly,  not  under  the  command  of  Government,  talkative, 
noisy,  and  ill-constituted  for  the  transaction  of  business. 
After  a  little  while  it  got  better  in  this  respect ;  the  majority, 
however,  though  evidently  determined  to  support  Govern- 
ment, would  not  be  commanded  by  it,  and  even  men  in  place 
often  took  up  crotchets  of  their  own,  and  voted  against  Gov- 
ernment measures ;  but,  whenever  the  Ministers  seemed  to 
be  in  danger,  they  always  found  efficient  support,  and  on  the 
Malt  Tax  the  House  even  stultified  itself  to  uphold  them. 
As  the  session  proceeded,  the  men  who  gained  reputation 
and  established  the  greatest  personal  influence  were  Peel 
and  Stanley ;  Macaulay  rather  lost  than  gained ;  Althorp 
lost  entirely,  but  the  weight  of  his  blunders  and  unfitness 
could  not  sink  him  ;  his  personal  character  and  good-humor 
alwas  buoyed  him  up.  The  great  measures,  some  of  the 
greatest  that  any  Parliament  ever  dealt  with,  were  got 
through  with  marvelous  facility.  They  did  not  for  the 
most  part  come  on  till  late  in  the  session,  when  the  House 
had  got  tired,  and  the  East  India  Charter  Bill  was  carried 
through  most  of  the  stages  in  empty  Houses.  The  measures 
have  generally  evinced  a  Conservative  character,  and  the 
31 


194  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

Parliament  has  not  shown  any  disposition  to  favor  subver- 
sive principles  or  to  encourage  subversive  language.  It  has 
been  eminently  liberal  in  point  of  money,  granting  all  that 
Ministers  asked,  without  the  slightest  difficulty;  twenty 
millions  for  the  West  Indians,  a  million  for  the  Irish  clergy, 
were  voted  almost  by  acclamation.  Hume  cut  no  figure  in 
this  Parliament.  Notwithstanding  apprehensions  and  pre- 
dictions, the  Government  has  contrived  to  carry  on  the 
business  of  the  country  very  successfully,  and  great  reforms 
have  been  accomplished  in  every  department  of  the  State, 
which  do  not  seem  liable  to  any  serious  objections,  and  in 
the  midst  of  many  troubles,  of  much  complaining  and  bicker- 
ing ;  the  country  has  been  advancing  in  prosperity,  and  re- 
covering rapidly  from  the  state  of  sickly  depression  in  which 
it  lay  at  the  end  of  last  year.  It  is  fair  to  compare  the  state 
of  affairs  now  and  then,  merely  reciting  facts,  and  let  the 
praise  rest  where  it  may,  whether  it  be  due  to  the  wisdom 
of  men  or  the  result  of  that  disposition  to  right  itself  which 
has  always  appeared  inherent  in  the  British  commonwealth. 
Some  months  ago  there  appeared  every  prospect  of  a  war  in 
Europe  ;  the  French  were  in  Belgium,  whence  many  pre- 
dicted they  would  never  be  got  away;  Ireland  was  in  a 
flame,  every  post  brought  the  relation  of  fresh  horrors  and 
atrocities;  in  England  trade  was  low,  alarm  and  uncertainty 
prevalent,  and  a  general  disquietude  pervaded  the  nation, 
some  fearing  and  others  desiring  a  change,  some  expecting, 
others  dreading  the  great  things  which  a  Reformed  Parlia- 
ment would  do.  The  session  is  over,  and  a  Reformed  Par- 
liament turns  out  to  be  very  much  like  every  other  Parlia- 
ment, except  that  it  is  rather  differently  and  somewhat  less 
ably  composed  than  its  predecessors.  The  hopes  and  the 
fears  of  mankind  have  been  equally  disappointed,  and  after 
all  the  clamor,  confusion,  riots,  conflagrations,  furies,  de- 
spair, -and  triumphs,  through  which  we  have  arrived  at 
this  consummation,  up  to  the  present  time,  at  least,  matters 
remain  pretty  much  as  they  were,  except  that  the  Whigs 
have  got  possession  of  the  power  which  the  Tories  have  lost. 
We  continue  at  peace,  and  with  every  prospect  of  so  being 
for  some  time  ;  we  are  on  good  terms  with  France,  and  by 
degrees  inducing  the  French  to  extend  their  incipient  prin- 
ciples of  free  trade,  to  the  benefit  of  both  countries.  In  Ire- 
land there  never  has  been  a  period  for  many  years  when  the 
country  was  so  quiet;  it  may  not  last,  but  so  it  is  at  the 


1838.]  A   KNIGHT   OF  TIIE   BATH.  -195, 

present  moment.  In  England  trade  flourishes,  running  in  a 
deep  and  steady  stream,  there  are  improvement  and  employ- 
ment in  all  its  branches.  The  landed  interest  has  suffered 
and  suffers  still,  but  the  wages  of  labor  have  not  fallen  with 
the  rents  of  landlords,  and  the  agricultural  laborers  were  never 
better  off.  Generally  there  is  a  better  spirit  abroad,  less  dis- 
content, greater  security,  and  those  vague  apprehensions  are 
lulled  to  rest  which  when  in  morbid  activity,  carrying  them- 
selves from  one  object  to  another,  are  partly  the  cause  and 
partly  the  effect  of  an  evil  state  of  things.  We  hear  nothing 
now  of  associations,  unions,  and  public  meetings,  and  (com- 
pared with  what  it  was)  the  world  seems  in  a  state  of  repose. 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

The  Speaker  a  Knight  of  the  Bath— Lord  Wellesley,  Lord-Lieutenaut  of  Ireland— M. 
Thlers  in  England— Prince  Esterhazy's  Opinion  of  the  State  of  England — Queen  of  Port- 
ugal at  Windsor— The  Duke  of  Leuchtenberg — Macaulay  and  Sydney  Smith — Brough- 
am's Anecdotes  of  Queen  Caroline — Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council — Sir 
Stratford  Canning  and  M.  Dedel — Sydney  Smith  and  the  "Siege  of  Saragossa '' — 
Edward  Irving — The  Unknown  Tongues — Tribute  to  Lord  Eldon — W.  J.  Fox— Lord 
Tavistock  on  the  Prospects  of  his  Party — Moore  at  the  State  Paper  Office — Russia  and 
England— Belvoir  Castle— The  Duke  of  Wellington  at  Belvoir— Visit  to  Mrs.  Ark- 
wright— Sir  Thomas  Lawrence  and  the  Misses  Stddons — A  Murder  at  Eunton — Sandon 
— Lord  and  Lady  Harrowby — Burghley — Railroads  talked  of—Gloomy  Tory  Prognos- 
tications— State  of  Spain — Parliament  opens — Quarrel  of  Shiel  and  Lord  Althorp — 
Unpopularity  of  Lord  Palmerston — Mrs.  Somerville— O'Connell's  Attack  on  Baron 
Smith — Lord  Althorp's  Budget — The  Pension  List — Lord  Althorp  as  Leader  of  the 
House — Sir  K.  Peel's  Position  in  the  House— Meeting  of  Supporters  of  Government — 
Mr.  Yllliers  on  the  State  of  Spain — Predicament  of  Home,  the  Attorney-General. 

September  5th. — At  Court  yesterday,  the  Speaker  l  was 
made  a  Knight  of  the  Bath  to  his  great  delight.  It  is  a  re- 
ward for  his  conduct  during  the  Session,  in  which  he  has  done 
Government  good  and  handsome  service.  He  told  them  before 
it  began  that  he  would  undertake  to  ride  the  new  House,  but 
it  must  be  with  a  snaffle-bridle.  Bosanquet  and  Sir  Alexander 
Johnston  were  made  Privy  Councilors  to  sit  in  the  Chancel- 
lor's new  Court.  The  Privy  Council  is  as  numerous  as  a 
moderate-sized  club,  and  about  as  well  composed.  Awful 
storms  these  last  few  days,  and  enormous  damage  done,  the 
weather  like  the  middle  of  winter. 

September  6th. — Yesterday    the    announcement  of  Lord 

1  [Rt.  Hon.  Manners  Button,  afterward  Viscount  Canterbury.] 


196  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

Wellesley's  appointment  to  be  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland 
was  received  with  as  great  astonishment  as  I  ever  saw. 
Once  very  brilliant,  probably  never  very  efficient,  he  is  now 
worn  out  and  effete.  It  is  astonishing  that  they  should  send 
such  a  man,  and  one  does  not  see  why,  because  it  is  difficult 
to  find  a  good  man,  they  should  select  one  of  the  very  worst 
they  could  hit  upon.  It  is  a  ridiculous  appointment,  which 
is  the  most  objectionable  of  all.  For  years  past  he  has  lived 
entirely  out  of  the  world.  He  comes  to  the  House  of  Lords, 
and  talks  of  making  a  speech  every  now  and  then,  of  which 
he  is  never  delivered,  and  he  comes  to  Court,  where  he  sits 
in  a  corner  and  talks  (as  those  who  know  him  say)  with  as 
much  fire  and  liveliness  as  ever,  and  with  the  same  neat, 
shrewd  causticity  that  formerly  distinguished  him;  but  such 
scintillations  as  these  prove  nothing  as  to  his  fitness  for 
business  and  government,  and  as  he  was  quite  unfit  for 
these  long  ago,  it  is  scarcely  to  be  supposed  that  retirement 
and  increased  age  and  infirmities  should  have  made  him  less 
so  now.1  They  have  judiciously  waited  till  Parliament  is  up 
before  the  appointment  was  made  known.  Lord  Wellesley 
is  said  to  be  in  the  hands  of  Blake  the  Remembrancer,  a  dan- 
gerous Jesuitical  fellow. 

September  1.0th. — At  Gorhambury  on  Saturday  till  Mon- 
day. Dined  on  Friday  with  Talleyrand,  a  great  dinner  to  M. 
Thiers,  the  French  Minister  of  Commerce,  a  little  man,  about 
as  tall  as  Shiel,  and  as  mean  and  vulgar-looking,  wearing 
spectacles,  and  with  a  squeaking  voice.  He  was  editor  of  the 
National,  an  able  writer,  and  one  of  the  principal  instigators 
of  the  Revolution  of  July.  It  is  said  that  he  is  a  man  of  great 
ability  and  a  good  speaker,  more  in  the  familiar  English  than 
the  bombastical  French  style.  Talleyrand  has  a  high  opinion 
of  him.  He  wrote  a  history  of  the  Revolution,  which  he  now 
regrets;  it  is  well  done,  but  the  doctrine  of  fatalism  which  he 
puts  forth  in  it  he  thinks  calculated  to  injure -his  reputation 
as  a  statesman.  I  met  him  again  at  dinner  at  Talleyrand's 
yesterday  with  another  great  party,  and  last  night  he  started 
on  a  visit  to  Birmingham  and  Liverpool. 

After  dinner  on  Friday  I  had  rather  a  curious  conversation 
with  Esterhazy,  who  said  he  wanted  to  know  what  I  thought 
of  the  condition  of  this  country.  I  told  him  that  I  thought 
every  thing  was  surprisingly  improved,  and  gave  my  reasons 

1  [TIlia  opinion  of  Lord  "Wellesley  was,  however,  speedily  changed  by  liis 
successful  and  vigorous  administration  of  Ireland.    See  infra,  November  14th.] 


1833.]  DEDEL,   THE   DUTCH   MINISTER.  197 

for  thinking  so.  He  then  went  off  and  said  that  these  were 
his  opinions  also,  and  he  had  written  home  in  this  strain,  that 
Neumann  had  deceived  his  Government,  giving  them  very 
different  accounts,  that  it  was  no  use  telling  them  what  they 
might  wish  to  hear,  but  that  he  was  resolved  to  tell  them  the 
truth,  and  make  them  understand  how  greatly  they  were  de- 
ceiving themselves  if  they  counted  upon  the  decadence  or 
want  of  power  of  this  country;  a  great  deal  more  of  the  same 
sort,  which  proves  that  the  Austrian  Court  were  all  on  the 
qui  vive  to  find  out  that  we  are  paralyzed,  and  that  their 
political  conduct  is  in  fact  influenced  by  their  notion  of  our 
actual  position.  They  probably  hardly  knew  what  they  would 
be  at,  but  their  hatred  and  dread  of  revolutionary  principles 
are  so  great  that  they  are  always  on  the  watch  for  a  good 
opportunity  of  striking  a  blow  at  them,  which  they  know  they 
can  only  do  through  England  and  France.  They  would  there- 
fore willingly  believe  that  the  political  power  of  England  is 
diminished,  and  Neumann,  who  wrote  in  the  spirit  of  a  disap- 
pointed Tory  rather  than  of  an  impartial  Foreign  Minister,  no 
doubt  nattered  their  desires  in  this  respect.  Last  night  I  sat 
by  Dedel,  the  Dutch  Minister,  who  told  me  he  knew  Neumann 
had  given  very  false  accounts  (not  intentionally)  to  his  Gov- 
ernment, that  Wesseriberg  took  much  juster  views,  and  he 
(Dedel)  agreed  with  Esterhazy,  who  said  that  nobody  could 
understand  this  country  who  had  not  had  long  experience  of 
it,  and  that  he  found  it  impossible  to  make  his  Government 
comprehend  it,  or  give  entire  credit  to  what  he  said.  Dedel 
told  me  that  Holland  is  ruined,  that  the  day  of  reckoning  will 
come,  when  they  will  discover  what  a  state  of  bankruptcy 
they  are  in,  that  the  spirit  of  the  nation  had  been  kept  up  by 
excitement,  and  that  therein  lay  the  dexterity  of  the  King 
and  his  Government,  but  that  this  factitious  enthusiasm  was 
rapidly  passing  away.  They  now  pay  fifty  millions  of  florins 
interest  of  debt,  about  four  millions  sterling,  and  their  popu- 
lation is  not  above  two  millions. 

The  young  Queen  of  Portugal  goes  to  Windsor  to-day. 
The  King  was  at  first  very  angry  at  her  coming  to  England, 
but  when  he  found  that  Louis  Philippe  had  treated  her  with 
incivility,  he  changed  his  mind,  and  resolved  to  receive  her 
with  great  honors.  He  hates  Louis  Philippe  and  the  French 
with  a  sort  of  Jack  Tar  animosity.  The  other  day  he  gave  a 
dinner  to  one  of  the  regiments  at  Windsor,  and  as  usual  he 
made  a  parcel  of  foolish  speeches,  in  one  of  which,  after 


^98  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  _CIIAP.  XXII. 

descanting  upon  their  exploits  in  Spain  against  the  French, 
he  went  on :  "  Talking  of  France,  I  must  say  that  whether  at 
peace  or  at  war  with  that  country,  I  shall  always  consider  her 
as  our  natural  enemy,  and  whoever  may  be  her  King  or  ruler, 
I  shall  keep  a  watchful  eye  for  the  purpose  of  repressing  her 
ambitious  encroachments."  If  he  was  not  such  an  ass  that 
nobody  does  any  thing  but  laugh  at  what  he  says,  this  would 
be  very  important.  Such  as  he  is,  it  is  nothing.  "  What  can 
you  expect "  (as  I  forget  who  said)  "  from  a  man  with  a  head 
like  a  pineapple?"  His  head  is  just  of  that  shape. 

The  history  of  the  French  King's  behavior  is  that  he 
wanted  the  young  Queen  of  Portugal  to  marry  the  Duke  de 
Nemours,  and  when  he  found  that  impossible  (for  we  should 
have  opposed  it)  he  proposed  Prince  Charles  of  Naples,  his 
nephew.  This  was  likewise  rejected.  The  Emperor  Dom  Pedro 
wants  the  Duke  of  Leuchtenberg,  his  wife's  brother,  to  marry 
her.1  This  Duke  went  to  Havre  the  other  day,  where  the 
Prefet  refused  to  admit  him,  though  he  went  with  (or  to)  his 
sister,  pleading  the  law  excluding  Napoleon's  family.  He 
went  to  the  Prefet  to  say  that  he  protested  against  such 
application  of  the  law,  but  as  he  would  not  make  any  dis- 
turbance there,  desired  to  have  his  passports  vise  for  Munich, 
and  off  he  went.  At  the  same  time  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Pal- 
merston,  which  George  Villiers,  to  whom  Palmerston  showed 
it,  told  me  was  exceedingly  good.  He  said  that  though  he 
did  not  know  Palmerston  he  ventured  to  address  him,  as  the 
Minister  of  the  greatest  and  freest  country  in  the  world,  for 
the  purpose  of  explaining  what  had  happened,  and  to  clear 
himself  from  the  misrepresentations  that  would  be  made  as  to 
his  motives  and  intentions  in  joining  his  sister;  that  it  was 
true  that  Dom  Pedro  had  wished  him  to  marry  his  daughter, 
and  that  he  had  written  him  a  letter,  of  which  he  inclosed 
a  copy.  This  was  a  very  well-written  letter,  begging  the 
Emperor  to  pause  and  consider  of  this  projected  match,  and 
setting  forth  all  the  reasons  why  it  might  not  be  advantageous 
for  her;  in  short,  Villiers  says,  exhibiting  a  very  remarkable 
degree  of  disinterestedness,  and  of  long-sighted  views  with 
regard  to  the  situation  of  Portugal  and  the  general  politics  of 
Europe. 

He  told  me  another  anecdote  at  the  same  time.    Palmerston 

1  [Queen  Donna  Maria  did  eventually  marry  the  young  Duke  of  Leuchten- 
berg,  son  of  P/ince  Eugene  Beauharnais  and  a  Bavarian  Princess.  But  he  sur- 
vived his  marriage  only  a  few  months,  and  died  of  a  fever  at  Lisbon.] 


1S3:;.]  "A   BOOK  IN   BREECHES."  199 

showed  him  a  letter  he  had  received  from  Charles  Napier,  in 
which,  talking  of  the  possible  interference  of  Spain,  he  said, 
"  Your  Lordship  knows  that  I  have  only  to  sail  with  my  fleet 
(enumerating  a  respectable  squadron  of  different  sizes)  to 
Cadiz,  and  I  can  create  a  revolution  in  five  minutes  through- 
out the  whole  South  of  Spain."  Palmerston  seems  to  have 
been  a  little  amused  and  a  little  alarmed  at  this  fanfaronade, 
in  which  there  is,  however,  a  great  deal  of  truth.  He  said 
that  of  course  they  should  not  allow  Napier  to  do  any  such 
thing,  but  as  nothing  else  could  prevent  him  if  we  did  not, 
the  Spaniards  may  be  made  to  understand  that  we  shall  not 
be  at  the  trouble  of  muzzling  this  bull-dog  if  they  do  not  be- 
have with  civility  and  moderation. 

London^  November  13th, — Nothing  written  for  nearly  two 
months.  I  remained  in  town  till  the  end  of  September, 
when  I  went  to  Newmarket,  and  afterward  to  Buckenham, 
where  I  met  Sir  Robert  Peel.  He  is  very  agreeable  in  so- 
ciety, it  is  a  toss-up  whether  he  talks  or  not,  but  if  he  thaws, 
and  is  in  good  humor  and  spirits,  he  is  lively,  entertaining, 
and  abounding  in  anecdotes,  which  he  tells  extremely  well. 
I  came  back  to  town  on  Friday  last,  the  8th,  dined  with  the 
Poodle,  and  found  Rogers,  Moore,  and  Westmacott  (the 
son) ;  a  very  agreeable  dinner.  On  Sunday  dined  with 
Rogers,  Moore,  Sydney  Smith,  Macaulay.  Sydney  less  vi- 
vacious than  usual,  and  somewhat  overpowered  and  talked 
down  by  what  Moore  called  the  "  flumen  sermonis  "  of  Ma- 
caulay. Sydney  calls  Macaulay  "  a  book  in  breeches."  All 
that  this  latter  says,  all  that  he  writes,  exhibits  his  great 
powers  and  astonishing  information,  but  I  don't  think  he  is 
agreeable.  It  is  more  than  society  requires,  and  not  exactly 
of  the  kind  ;  his  figure,  face,  voice,  and  manner,  are  all  bad  ; 
he  astonishes  and  instructs,  he  sometimes  entertains,  seldom 
amuses,  and  still  seldomer  pleases.  He  wants  variety,  elas- 
ticity, gracefulness ;  his  is  a  roaring  torrent,  and  not  a  mean- 
dering stream  of  talk.  I  believe  we  would  all  of  us  have  been 
glad  to  exchange  some  of  his  sense  for  some  of  Sydney  Smith's 
nonsense.  He  told  me  that  he  had  read  Sir  Charles  Grandi- 
son  fifteen  times  ! 

Not  a  word  of  news,  political  or  other ;  the  Ministers  are 
all  come,  Spain  and  Portugal  potter  on  with  their  civil  contests 
and  create  uneasiness,  though  of  a  languid  kind.  I  came  to 
town  for  a  meeting  at  the  Council  Office,  the  first  under 
Brougham's  new  Bill,  to  make  rules  and  regulations  for  the 


200  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXII 

proceedings  of  the  Court.  All  the  lawyers  attended ;  not 
much  done,  but  there  do  not  seem  to  be  any  great  difficulties. 
There  was  Brougham,  with  Leach  next  him,  and  Lyndhurst 
opposite,  all  smirks  and  civility,  he  and  Leach  quite  fondling 
one  another.  Dined  yesterday  with  Stanley,  who  gave  me  a 
commission  to  bet  a  hundred  for  him  on  Bentley  against  Ber- 
bastes  for  the  Derby,  and  talked  of  racing  after  dinner  with 
as  much  zest  as  if  he  was  on  the  turf.  Who  (to  see  him  and 
hear  him  thus)  would  take  him  for  the  greatest  orator  and 
statesman  of  the  day  ? 

JVbvember  14?A. — Dined  with  Sefton  yesterday;  after  din- 
ner came  in  the  Chancellor,  in  good  humor  and  spirits  ;  talked 
of  Lord  Wellesley,  who,  since  he  has  been  in  Ireland,  has  as- 
tonished everybody  by  his  activity  and  assiduity  in  business. 
He  appeared,  before  he  went,  in  the  last  stage  of  decrepitude, 
and  the}r  had  no  idea  the  energy  was  in  him  ;  but  they  say  he 
is  quite  a  new  man,  and  it  is  not  merely  a  splash,  but  real  and 
bona-fide  business  that  he  does.  The  Chancellor  talked  over 
some  of  the  passages  of  the  Queen's  trial,  to  which  he  loves 
to  revert.  It  was  about  the  liturgy.  The  negotiations  which 
had  taken  place  at  Apsley  House  between  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington and  Lord  Castlereagh  on  one  part,  and  Brougham  and 
Denman  on  the  other,  were  broken  off  on  that  point.  It  was 
then  agreed  to  refer  the  matter  to  others  ;  the  Duke  and  Cas- 
tlereagh were  to  meet  Lord  Fitzwilliam  and  Sefton  ;  a  queer 
choice,  old  Fitzwilliam  a  driveler,  and  Sefton,  with  all  his 
sharpness,  totally  unfit  for  the  office  of  negotiator  in  a  grave 
matter.  He  can't  be  grave,  life  itself  is  to  him  a  plaything  ; 
but  the  night  before  they  were  to  meet,  Fitzwilliam  took 
fright,  and  backed  out.  Notice  was  sent  to  the  other  party, 
but  they  did  not  get  it,  owing  to  some  mistake.  In  the  morn- 
ing Brougham  came  to  Sefton  and  asked  him  to  drive  him  up 
to  the  Queen's  house,  and  as  they  passed  through  Grosvenor 
Square,  to  their  amazement  they  saw  Wellington  and  Castle- 
reagh alighting  (full  dressed  for  the  levee)  at  Lord  Fitzwil- 
liam's  door.  Sefton  went  into  the  house,  and  found  them  al- 
ready in  the  dining-room,  the  table  covered  with  papers,  when 
an  explanation  ensued,  on  which  they  had  to  bundle  up  their 
papers  again  and  trot  off. 

When  the  deputation  from  the  House  of  Commons  went 
up  with  the  address  to  the  Queen,  entreating  her  to  come 
to  terms  (Banks,  Wortley,  Acland,  and  Wilberforce),  she 
had  got  all  her  Council  assembled,  and  before  receiving  the 


1833.]  THE   QUEEN   IN   COUNCIL.  201 

deputation  from  the  Commons,  she  asked  their  advice. 
Brougham  said  that  she  was  disposed  to  acquiesce,  but 
wanted  them  to  advise  her  to  do  so,  and  that  her  intention 
was,  if  they  had,  to  act  on  that  advice,  but  to  save  her  popu- 
larity by  throwing  the  odium  on  them,  and  devoting  them  to 
popular  execration.  He  therefore  resolved,  and  his  brethren 
likewise,  to  give  no  advice  at  all ;  and  when  she  turned  to 
him,  and  said,  "What  do  you  think  I  ought  to  do  ?  "  he  re- 
plied, in  a  sort  of  speech  which  he  gave  very  comically,  "  Your 
Majesty  is  undoubtedly  the  best  judge  of  the  answer  you 
ought  to  give,  and  I  am  certain  that  your  own  feelings  will 
point  out  to  you  the  proper  course."  "Well,  but  what  is 
your  opinion  ?  "  "  Madam,  I  certainly  have  a  strong  opinion 
on  the  subject,  but  I  think  there  cannot  be  a  shadow  of  doubt 
of  what  your  Majesty  ought  to  do,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt 
your  Majesty's  admirable  sense  will  suggest  to  you  what  that 
opinion  is."  "  Humph,"  said  she,  and  flung  from  him  ;  turn- 
ing to  Denman,  "  And,  Mr.  Solicitor,  what  is  your  opinion  ?  " 
"  Madam,  I  concur  entirely  in  that  which  has  been  expressed 
by  the  Attorney-General ; "  and  so  they  all  repeated.  She 
was  furious,  and  being  left  to  herself  she  resolved  not  to  agree. 
Sefton  was  on  horseback  among  the  crowd  which  was  waiting 
impatiently  to  hear  the  result  of  the  interview  and  her  determi- 
nation. He  had  agreed  with  Brougham  that,  as  soon  as  she 
had  made  up  her  mind,  he  should  come  to  the  window  and 
make  him  a  sign.  He  was  to  stroke  his  chin  if  she  refused, 
and  do  something  else,  I  forget  what,  if  she  agreed.  Accord- 
ingly arrived  Brougham  at  the  window,  all  in  gown  and  wig, 
and  as  soon  as  he  caught  Sefton's  eye  began  stroking  his  chin. 
This  was  enough  for  Sefton,  who  (as  he  declares)  immediately 
began  telling  people  in  the  crowd,  who  were  wondering  and 
doubting  and  hoping,  that  they  might  rely  upon  it  she  would 
"  stand  by  them,"  and  not  accept  the  terms. 

November  21s£. — Another  meeting  at  the  Council  Office 
the  day  before  yesterday.  The  Chancellor  arranging  every 
thing,  but  proposing  many  things  which  meet  with  opposition, 
wants  people  to  be  allowed  to  plead  in  formd  pauperis  before 
the  Privy  Council,  which  they  object  to.  I  have  doubts  whether 
this  Court  will  work  well  after  all,  and  foresee  great  difficulty 
about  the  rota  ;  everybody  had  something  to  prevent  their  at- 
tendance ;  however,  we  meet  on  the  27th  for  the  dispatch  of 
business.  I  have  just  finished  "  Clarissa  ;  "  never  was  so  in- 
terested or  affected  by  any  book. 


302  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

November  28th. — Yesterday  the  first  meeting  under  Brough- 
am's new  Bill  of  "  the  Judicial  Committee,"  the  Chancellor, 
Vice-Chancellor,  Baron  Parke,  Justice  Bosanquet,  and  Erskine 
(Chief  Judge  in  Bankruptcy).  I  can't  perceive  that  matters 
are  likely  to  go  on  a  bit  better  than  when  one  Judge  sat  there, 
though  the  Chancellor  endeavors  to  confer  all  the  importance 
he  can  on  his  Committee,  that  he  may  hereafter  figure  there 
himself.  There  has  been  a  lively  controversy  between  the 
Whig  and  Tory  papers,  of  which  he  has  been  the  object,  the 
former  lauding  his  law  reforms,  the  latter  attacking  his  judicial 
incompetence.  It  is  actually  true  that  hardly  any  original 
causes  are  brought  before  him,  and  he  has  little  business  ex- 
cept appeals  which  must  come  into  his  Court.  He  feels  him- 
self every  day  in  a  more  unpleasant  predicament,  and  of  course 
has  a  growing  impatience  to  get  rid  of  his  judicial  duties. 
That  he  will  by  a  series  of  tricks  wriggle  out  of  them  there 
can  be  no  doubt,  for  just  now  he  can  do  whatever  he  pleases. 
What  he  wants  is  to  be  Prime  Minister ;  his  restless  and  ver- 
satile mind  will  then  find  sufficient  occupation,  and  there  is  no 
department  of  Government  which  he  does  not  think  himself 
capable  of  presiding  over,  leaving  as  he  would  do  all  trouble- 
some details  to  be  worked  out  by  others. 

November  30th. — A  long  sitting  of  our  Court  yesterday. 
The  Chancellor  comes  regularly.  Jenner  (the  King's  Advo- 
cate) told  me  that  he  believed  the  Chancellor's  object  was  to 
transfer  all  appeals  from  the  House  of  Lords  to  the  Privy 
Council.  Lyndhurst  (whom  I  met  at  Mrs.  Fox's)  said  that  it 
was  quite  true  that  he  had  no  business  in  his  own  Court,  for 
nobody  would  plead  there,  that  he  wanted  to  be  Prime  Minis- 
ter, retaining  the  emoluments  and  patronage  of  the  Great  Seal, 
and  getting  rid  of  its  duties.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  he 
does,  and  if  Lord  Grey  dies,  or  is  ill  (in  which  case  he  will  re- 
sign), he  probably  will  succeed.  It  is  amusing  to  see  Brough- 
am's tricks  in  small  things  ;  his  present  object  is  to  raise  the 
Judicial  Committee  as  much  as  he  can,  and  bring  all  the  busi- 
ness there  lie  can  collect;  in  order  to  increase  the  appeals  he 
proposed  to  allow  of  them  from  the  Indian  Courts  in  formd 
pauperis.  This,  however,  was  strenuously  resisted  by  all  the 
Judges  and  others  present,  and  as  he  always  takes  the  lead  in 
all  discussions  relating  to  rules  and  regulations,  when  he  found 
that  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  Committee  was  the  other 
way,  he  turned  himself  round  and  argued  against  his  own 
proposal,  stating  or  anticipating  the  objections  of  the  others, 


1633.]  ANECDOTE  OF  STRATFORD   CANNING.  203 

just   insinuating  incidentally  counter-arguments,  and  ending 
by  letting  the  question  remain  in  abeyance. 

Madame  de  Lieven  told  me  an  anecdote  of  Stratford 
Canning  -which  highly  delighted  her,  because  it  justified  the 
resistance  which  the  Court"  of  Russia  made  to  his  nomina- 
tion to  that  Embassy.  The  other  day  Dedel  called  on 
Palmerston.  When  shown  into  the  waiting-room,  he  said, 
"  Tell  Lord  Palmerston  that  the  Dutch  Minister  will  be  glad 
to  see  him,"  when  a  man  who  was  there,  and  whom  he  did 
not  know,  jumped  up  and  said,  "And  I  desire  you  will  tell 
Lord  Palmerston  that  I  have  been  waiting  here  these  two 
hours,  and  that  I  expect  to  see  him  before  anybody  else  ; " 
and  then,  turning  to  Dedel,  "  Sir,  this  is  too  bad  ;  two  persons 
have  been  already  shown  in  to  Lord  Palmerston,  both  of 
whom  came  after  me,  and  I  expect  that  you  will  not  go  in 
to  his  Lordship  till  after  me."  Dedel,  who  is  the  mildest 
and  civilest  of  men,  replied,  "  Sir,  far  be  it  from  me  to  dis- 
pute your  right,  and  I  assure  you  I  have  no  desire  to  go  in 
before  you,  but  I  only  beg  that  if  Lord  Palmerston  should 
send  for  me  first  you  will  understand  that  I  cannot  help 
going  ;  "  and  then  the  other,  "  Sir,  I  am  Sir  Stratford  Can- 
ning." "  And  I  am  Mr.  Dedel."  This  extraordinary  scene 
he  told  Madame  de  Lieven,  not  knowing  what  had  passed 
about  the  mission.  Touching  that  affair,  there  is  an  un- 
derstanding that  he  shall  not  go  there,  and  no  other  Em- 
bassador  is  to  be  named  till  it  is  quite  convenient  to  Palmer- 
ston. 

The  day  before  yesterday  I  met  Sydney  Smith  at  dinner 
at  Poodle  Byng's,  when  a  conversation  occurred  which  pro- 
duced a  curious  coincidence.  We  were  talking  of  Vaughan, 
the  Minister  in  America,  how  dull  he  appeared,  and  yet  how 
smart  and  successful  had  been  "  The  Siege  of  Saragossa," 
which  he  published  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  war.  Sydney 
Smith  said  that  the  truth  was  he  had  not  written  a  word  of 
it,  and  on  being  questioned  further  said  that  he  was  himself 
the  author.  Vaughan,  who  was  a  friend  of  his,  had  given 
him  the  materials,  and  he  had  composed  the  narrative.  He 
then  went  on  to  say  that  it  was  not  the  only  instance  of  the 
kind,  for  that  the  celebrated  pamphlet  which  had  been  at- 
tributed to  Lady  Canning  had  not  been  written  by  her,  not  a 
word  of  it,  that  it  had  been  written  by  Stapleton.  I  said 
that  I  had  it  in  my  power  to  contradict  this,  for  that  I  had 
been  privy  to  the  composition  of  it,  had  seen  the  manuscript, 


304  REIGN  OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXII 

and  had  at  her  request  undertaken  the  task  of  revising  and 
correcting  it.  Thus  were  two  mistakes  accidentally  cleared 
up,  by  the  circumstance  of  the  only  persons  who  could  have 
explained  them  being  present. 

December  2d. — I  went  yesterday  to  Edward  Irving's 
chapel  to  hear  him  preach,  and  witness  the  exhibition  of  the 
tongues.  The  chapel  was  formerly  West's  picture-gallery, 
oblong,  with  a  semicircular  recess  at  one  end  ;  it  has  been 
fitted  up  with  galleries  all  round,  and  in  the  semicircle  there 
are  tiers  of  benches,  in  front  of  which  is  a  platform  with  an 
elevated  chair  for  Irving  himself,  and  a  sort  of  desk  before 
it  ;  on  each  side  the  chair  are  three  arm-chairs,  on  which 
three  other  preachers  sat.  The  steps  from  the  floor  to  the 
platform  were  occupied  by  men  (whether  peculiarly  favored 
or  not  I  don't  know),  but  the  seats  behind  Irving's  chair  are 
evidently  appropriated  to  the  higher  class  of  devotees,  for 
they  were  the  best  dressed  of  the  congregation.  The  busi- 
ness was  conducted  with  decency,  and  the  congregation  was 
attentive.  It  began  with  a  hymn,  the  words  given  out  by 
one  of  the  assistant  preachers,  and  sung  by  the  whole  flock. 
This,  which  seems  to  be  common  to  all  dissenting  services,  is 
always  very  fine,  the  full  swell  of  human  voices  producing  a 
grand  effect.  After  this  Irving  delivered  a  prayer,  in  a  very 
slow,  drawling  tone,  rather  long,  and  not  at  all  striking  in 
point  of  language  or  thought.  When  he  had  finished,  one 
of  the  men  sitting  beside  him  arose,  read  a  few  verses  from 
the  Bible,  and  discoursed  thereon.  He  was  a  sorry  fellow, 
and  was  followed  by  two  others,  not  much  better.  After 
these  three,  Spencer  Perceval  stood  up.  He  recited  the  duty 
to  our  neighbor  in  the  catechism,  and  descanted  on  that 
text  in  a  style  in  all  respects  far  superior  to  the  others.  He 
appeared  about  to  touch  on  politics,  and  (as  well  as  I  rec- 
ollect) was  saying,  "  Ye  trusted  that  your  institutions  were 
unalterable,  ye  believed  that  your  loyalty  to  your  King,  your 

respect  for  your  nobility,  your "  when  suddenly  a  low 

moaning  noise  was  heard,  on  which  he  instantly  stopped, 
threw  his  arm  over  his  breast,  and  covered  his  eyes,  in  an 
attitude  of  deep  devotion,  as  if  oppressed  by  the  presence  of 
the  spirit.  The  voice  after  ejaculating  three  "Oh's,"  one 
rising  above  the  other,  in  tones  very  musical,  burst  into  a 
flow  of  unintelligible  jargon,  which,  whether  it  was  in  English 
or  in  gibberish,  I  could  not  discover.  This  lasted  five  or  six 
minutes,  and  as  the  voice  was  silenced,  another  woman,  in 


1833.]  EDWARD   IRVING.  205 

more  passionate  and  louder  tones,  took  it  up  ;  this  last  spoke 
in  English,  and  words,  though  not  sentences,  were  distinguish- 
able. I  had  a  full  view  of  her  sitting  exactly  behind  Irving's 
chair.  She  was  well  dressed,  spoke  sitting,  under  great 
apparent  excitement,  and  screamed  on  till  from  exhaustion, 
as  it  seemed,  her  voice  gradually  died  away,  and  all  was  still. 
Then  Spencer  Perceval,  in  slow  and  solemn  tones,  resumed, 
not  where  he  had  left  off,  but  with  an  exhortation  to  hear 
the  voice  of  the  Lord  which  had  just  been  uttered  to  the 
congregation,  and  after  a  few  more  sentences  he  sat  down. 
Two  more  men  followed  him,  and  then  Irving  preached. 
His  subject  was  "  God's  love,"  upon  which  he  poured  forth 
a  mystical  incomprehensible  rhapsody,  with  extraordinary 
vehemence  of  manner  and  power  of  lungs.  There  was  nothing 
like  eloquence  in  his  sermon,  no  musical  periods  to  captivate 
the  ear,  no  striking  illustrations  to  charm  the  imagination  ; 
but  there  is  undoubtedly  something  in  his  commanding 
figure  and  strange,  wild  countenance,  his  vehemence,  and 
above  all  the  astonishing  power  of  his  voice,  its  compass,  in- 
tonation, and  variety,  which  arrests  attention,  and  gives  the 
notion  of  a  great  orator.  I  dare  say  he  can  speak  well,  but 
to  waste  real  eloquence  on  such  an  auditory  would  be  like 
throwing  pearls  to  swine.  "  The  bawl  of  Bellas  "  is  better 
adapted  for  their  ears  than  quiet  sense  in  simpler  sounds, 
and  the  principle  "  omne  ignotum  pro  magnifico,"  can  scarcely 
find  a  happier  illustration  than  among  a  congregation  whose 
admiration  is  probably  in  an  inverse  ratio  to  their  com- 
prehension. 

December  6th. — The  Vice-chancellor,  Parke,  Bosanquet, 
and  Erskine,  met  yesterday  to  consider  a  judgment,  and  took 
three  hours  to  manage  it  ;  business  does  not  go  on  so  quickly 
with  many  Judges  as  with  one,  whether  it  be  more  satisfac- 
tory or  not.  The  Chancellor,  the  last  time  we  met,  announced 
to  the  Bar  (very  oddly)  that  for  the  future  their  Lordships 
would  give  judgment  in  turn.  (He  had  himself  delivered 
the  only  judgment  that  had  been  given.)  The  Vice-Chan- 
cellor, who  I  thought  was  his  friend,  laughed  at  this  yester- 
day with  me,  and  said  that  he  wanted  to  throw  off  from 
himself  as  much  as  he  could.  I  asked  him  (he  had  said 
something,  I  forget  what,  about  the  Chancery  Bill)  what 
would  be  left  for  the  Chancellor  to  do  when  that  Bill  was 
passed.  He  said,  "Nothing,  that  he  meant  to  be  Prime 
Minister  and  Chancellor,  and  that  it  was  what  he  had  been 


206  EEIGN  OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

driving  at  all  along,  that  the  Bill  for  regulating  the  Privy 
Council  was  only  a  part  of  his  own  plan,  and  that  all  his 
schemes  tended  to  that  end."  Setting  political  bias  aside,  it 
is  curious,  considering  his  station,  to  hear  the  lawyers  talk 
of  him,  the  contempt  they  universally  have  for  him  profes- 
sionally, how  striking  the  contrast  with  the  profound  respect 
which  is  paid  to  Lord  Eldon.  The  other  day,  in  the  action 
brought  against  the  Chancellor  for  false  imprisonment,  Lord 
Eldon  was  subpoenaed,  and  he  appeared  to  give  evidence  ; 
when  he  entered  the  Court,  while  he  was  examined,  and 
when  he  departed,  the  whole  Bar  stood  up,  and  the  Solicitor- 
General  harangued  him,  expressed,  in  the  name  of  his 
brethren,  the  satisfaction  they  felt  at  seeing  him  once  more 
among  them.  There  is  something  affecting  in  these  reveren- 
tial testimonials  to  a  man  from  whom  power  has  passed  away, 
and  who  is  just  descending  into  the  grave,  and  I  doubt  if,  at 
the  close  of  his  career,  Brougham  will  ever  obtain  the  same. 

December  2th. — Went  yesterday  with  Frederick  Elliot  and 
Luttrell  to  hear  Fox,  a  celebrated  Unitarian  preacher,  at  a 
chapel  in  South  Place,  Finsbury  Square.  He  is  very  short 
and  thick,  dark  hair,  black  eyes,  and  a  countenance  intelligent 
though  by  no  means  handsome  ;  his  voice  is  not  strong,  and 
his  articulation  imperfect,  he  cannot  pronounce  the  s.  His 
sermon  was,  however,  admirable,  and  amply  repaid  us  for  the 
trouble  of  going  so  far.  He  read  the  whole  of  it,  the  language 
was  beautiful,  the  argument  clear  and  unembarrassed,  the 
reasoning  powerful,  and  there  were  occasionally  passages  of 
great  eloquence.  The  conclusion,  which  was  a  sort  of  invoca- 
tion to  the  Deity,  was  very  fine.  I  like  the  simplicity  of  the 
service ;  hymns,  a  prayer,  and  the  sermon,  still  I  think  a  short 
liturgy  preferable — our  own,  much  abbreviated,  would  be  the 
best. 

December  ~L3th. — Met  Tavistock  at  dinner  the  other  day, 
and  talked  about  the  Government ;  from  his  intimacy  with 
Althorp  and  connection  with  the  others  he  knows  their  senti- 
ments pretty  accurately.  He  said  that  Lord  Grey  had  so 
high  an  opinion  of  Althorp  that  he  made  his  remaining  a  sine 
qud  non,  and  accordingly  he  does  remain.  He  thought  Lord 
Grey  would  be  glad  to  retire,  but  that  he  will  go  on  as  long 
as  he  can,  because  the  Government  would  be  placed  in  such 
great  embarrassment  by  his  retreat.  He  did  not  think 
Brougham  could  succeed  him,  though  he  believed  his  popu- 
larity in  the  country  to  be  great ;  that  all  depended  on  the 


1833.1  ROBERT   LEMON,   ESQ.  207 

part  Peel  took  in  the  next  session,  for  in  the  event  of  Lord 
Grey's  resignation  he  looked  to  the  King's  sending  for  Peel  to 
form  a  Government  (much  as  Canning  did  when  Lord  Liver- 
pool died),  principally  composed  of  course  of  the  purest  mate- 
rials, but  not  exclusively,  and  that  he  did  not  think  the  great 
body  of  the  Liberal  party  would  make  any  difficulty  of  ac- 
cepting office  under  Peel ;  that  Stanley  would  not.  He 
(Tavistock)  thinks  that  Peel  could  not  come  into  office  with 
the  Duke  of  Wellington  ;  the  Tories  (Irvine,  e.  g.)  think  he 
would  not  come  in  without  him. 

December  18th. — Went  with  Moore  yesterday  morning  to 
the  State  Paper  Office,  and  introduced  him  to  Lemon.1  It 
was  at  the  new  office,  where  the  documents  are  in  course  of 
arrangement,  and  for  the  future  they  will  be  accessible  and 
useful.  John  Allen  told  Moore  the  other  day  that  he  con- 
sidered that  the  history  of  England  had  never  really  been 
written,  so  much  matter  was  there  in  public  and  private  collec- 
tions, illustrative  of  it,  that  had  never  been  made  use  of. 
Lemon  said  he  could  in  great  measure  confirm  that  assertion, 
as  his  researches  had  afforded  him  the  means  of  throwing 
great  light  upon  modern  history,  from  the  time  of  Henry  VIII. 
The  fact  is,  that  the  whole  thing  is  conventional ;  people  take 
the  best  evidence  that  has  been  produced,  and  give  their  as- 
sent to  a  certain  series  of  events,  until  more  facts  and  better 
evidence  supplant  the  old  statements  and  establish  others  in 
their  place.  They  are  now  printing  Irish  papers  of  the  time 
of  Henry  VIII.,  but  from  the  folly  of  Henry  Hobhouse,  who 
would  not  let  the  volume  be  indexed,  it  will  be  of  little  ser- 
vice. In  the  evening  dined  with  Moore  at  the  Poodle's.  He 
told  a  good  story  of  Sydney  Smith  and  Leslie  the  Professor. 
Leslie  had  written  upon  the  North  Pole ;  something  he  had 
said  had  been  attacked  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  in  a  way 
that  displeased  him.  He  called  on  Jeffrey  just  as  he  was 
getting  on  horseback,  and  in  a  great  hurry.  Leslie  began 
with  a  grave  complaint  on  the  subject,  which  Jeffrey  inter- 
rupted with,  "  O  damn  the  North  Pole  ! "  Leslie  went  off  in 
high  dudgeon,  and  soon  after  met  Sydney,  who,  seeing  him 
disturbed,  asked  what  was  the  matter.  He  told  him  what  he 
had  been  to  Jeffrey  about,  and  that  he  had  in  a  very  unpleasant 


been  opened  to  literary 
tion.] 


208  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

way  said,  "  Damn  the  North  Pole."  "  It  was  very  bad,"  said 
Sydney ;  "  but,  do  you  know,  I  am  not  surprised  at  it,  for  I 
have  heard  him  speak  very  disrespectfully  of  the  Equator" 

December  21st. — There  is  great  talk  of  war  with  Russia, 
which  I  don't  believe  will  take  place.  I  had  a  long  talk  with 
Madame  de  Lieven  the  day  before  yesterday,  and  was  sur- 
prised to  find  her  with  such  a  lofty  tone  about  war.  She 
said  that  it  was  "  chance  'egale  ;  "  that  they  neither  desired  nor 
feared  it  ;  that  our  tone  had  latterly  been  so  insulting  that 
they  had  no  option  but  that  of  replying  with  corresponding 
hauteur;  that  if  we  sent  ships  to  the  Mediterranean  they 
would  send  ships ;  that  if  those  measures  were  pursued,  and 
such  language  held,  it  was  impossible  to  say  that  circum- 
stances might  not  bring  about  war,  though  equally  against  the 
wishes  and  interests  of  all  parties.  In  such  a  case  we  might 
destroy  their  fleet  and  burn  their  harbors,  but  we  could  not 
exclude  them  from  Turkey,  nor  once  established  there  get 
them  out  again.  That  we  must  not  fancy  we  should  be  able, 
in  conjunction  with  France,  to  keep  the  rest  of  Europe  in 
check ;  for  it  was  the  opinion  of  the  wisest  heads,  and  of 
Louis  Philippe  himself,  that  a  war  would  infallibly  bring  about 
his  downfall.  (This  latter  opinion  is  likewise,  I  find,  that  of 
the  French  ultra-Radicals  ;  but  they  think  the  war  must  be  a 
war  of  opinion,  and  that  the  extreme  Liberals,  who  would 
thereby  gain  the  ascendency,  would  make  the  King  the  first 
victim.)  She  complained  bitterly  of  the  language  of  our 
newspapers,  and  of  our  orators  in  Parliament,  described  the 
indignation  of  the  Russian  Court,  and  the  dignified  resent- 
ment mixed  with  contempt  of  the  Emperor  ;  in  short,  talked 
very  big,  but  still  there  will  be  no  war — I  met  Dedel  after- 
ward, and  he  told  me  that  at  Broadlands,  where  they  all  met, 
some  explanations  in  a  tolerably  friendly  tone  did  take  place. 
The  truth  is  that  we  have  divested  ourselves  of  the  right  of 
objecting  to  Russia's  measures  with  regard  to  Turkey,  al- 
though we  do  not  dare  acknowledge  what  we  have  done,  nor 
our  motives.  We  were  (and  we  are)  in  a  false  position,  and 
she  has  played  her  cards  with  great  dexterity;  but  the  Treaty1 
is  another  thing,  and  is  justly  calculated  to  excite  our  jeal- 
ousy and  suspicions.  We  have  held  this  language  to  Russia 
with  regard  to  the  Treaty  :  "  We  do  not  remonstrate,  because 
we  admit  your  right  to  make  what  treaties  you  think  fit ;  but 
we  give  you  notice  that,  if  any  attempt  is  made  to  enforce 

1  The  treaty  of  ITnkiar  Skelessi. 


1S34.]  BELVOIR   CASTLE.  200 

the  stipulations  of  it  against  us,  we  shall  not  endure  it,  and 
you  must  be  prepared  for  the  consequences." 

1834. 

Belvoir  Castle,  January  7th. — After  many  years  of  delay, 
I  am  here  since  the  3d,  to  assist  at  the  celebration  of  the 
Duke  of  Rutland's  birthday.  The  party  is  very  large,  and 
sufficiently  dull:  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  Esterhazy,  Ma- 
tuscewitz,  Rokeby,  Miss  d'Este  (afterward  Lady  Truro), 
and  the  rest  a  rabble  of  fine  people,  without  beauty  or  wit 
among  them.  The  place  is  certainly  very  magnificent,  and 
the  position  of  the  castle  unrivaled,  though  the  interior  is 
full  of  enormous  faults,  which  are  wholly  irretrievable.  This 
results  from  the  management  of  the  alterations  having  been 
intrusted  to  the  Duchess  and  Sir  John  Thurston  (the  former 
of  whom  had  some  taste  but  no  knowledge),  and  they  have 
consequently  made  a  sad  mess  of  it.  There  is  immense 
space  wasted,  and  with  great  splendor  and  some  comfort 
the  Castle  has  been  tumbled  about  until  they  have  contrived 
to  render  it  a  very  indifferent  house  ;  no  two  rooms  communi- 
cating, nor  even  (except  the  drawing-room  and  dining-room, 
the  former  of  which  is  seldom  or  never  inhabited)  contiguous. 
The  gallery,  though  unfinished,  is  a  delightful  apartment, 
and  one  of  the  most  comfortable  I  ever  saw.  The  outside  of 
the  Castle  is  faulty,  but  very  grand  ;  so  grand  as  to  sink  criti- 
cism in  admiration ;  and  altogether,  with  its  terraces  and 
towers,  its  woods  and  hills,  and  its  boundless  prospect  over  a 
rich  and  fertile  country,  it  is  a  very  noble  possession.  The 
Duke  lives  here  for  three  or  four  months,  from  the  end  of 
October  till  the  end  of  February  or  March,  on  and  off,  and 
the  establishment  is  kept  up  with  extraordinary  splendor. 
In  the  morning  we  are  roused  by  the  strains  of  martial  music, 
and  the  band  (of  his  regiment  of  militia)  marches  round  the 
terrace,  awakening  or  quickening  the  guests  with  lively  airs. 
All  the  men  hunt  or  shoot.  At  dinner  there  is  a  different 
display  of  plate  every  day,  and  in  the  evening  some  play  at 
whist  or  amuse  themselves  as  they  please,  and  some  walk 
about  the  staircases  and  corridors  to  hear  the  band,  which 
plays  the  whole  evening  in  the  hall.  On  the  Duke's  birthday 
there  was  a  great  feast  in  the  Castle;  200  people  dined  in 
the  servants'  hall  alone,  without  counting  the  other  tables. 
We  were  about  forty  at  dinner.  When  the  cloth  was  re- 


210  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [Cnxr.  XXII. 

moved,  Esterhazy  proposed  his  Grace's  health,  who  has  always 
a  speech  prepared  in  which  he  returns  thanks.  This  time  it 
was  more  simple  than  usual,  and  not  at  all  bad.  To-night 
there  is  a  ball  for  the  servants,  which  could  not  take  place 
on  the  real  birthday,  as  it  fell  on  a  Saturday. 

I  have  had  snatches  of  talk  with  the  Duke  of  Wellington, 
and  yesterday  morning  he  retired  with  Matuscewitz,  and  had 
a  long  conference  with  him.  The  absolute  Courts  have  a 
great  hankering  after  the  Duke,  though  their  Ministers  here 
can  hardly  look  for  his  return  to  office;  nor  do  I  believe  that 
if  he  was  to  come  back  he  would  be  found  indulgent  to  the 
projects  of  Russia,  though  he  might  be  disinclined  to  continue 
so  very  intimate  as  we  now  are  with  France.  He  told  me  this 
morning  he  thought  the  French  King's  speech  to  his  Cham- 
bers exceedingly  good.  He  of  course  disapproves  of  all  our 
foreign  policy,  particularly  in  the  Peninsula.  He  says  he 
sees  no  daylight  whatever  through  the  Portuguese  affair.  The 
Spanish  may  terminate  in  the  success  of  the  Queen,  but  only 
by  her  opposing  Liberalism.  He  is  convinced  that  if  she  in- 
troduces Liberal  principles  she  will  be  lost.  He  says  that  the 
Spanish  Government  will  be  too  happy  to  interfere  in  the 
Portuguese  contest  (as  in  fact  I  know  that  they  have  offered 
to  do),  but  that  we  never  can  allow  this,  which  besides  the 
consequences  of  interference  (as  a  principle)  would  necessa- 
rily make  Portugal  dependent  on  Spain.  Arbuthnot,  who  is 
here,  told  me  (and  he  hears  these  things  from  the  Duke)  that 
Matuscewitz  had  expressed  the  greatest  contempt  for  Palmer- 
ston,  and  not  the  less  for  Lord  Grey;  and  that,  with  regard 
to  the  latter,  he  had  been  much  struck  with  his  ignorance.  I 
do  not  know  on  what  points  he  meant,  but  it  must  be  in  his- 
tory or  diplomacy,  which  I  am  surprised  at,  because  I  thought 
he  was  a  man  of  a  cultivated  mind  and  general  information, 
who  would  be  found,  as  far  as  knowledge  goes,  competent  to 
any  discussion.  He  likewise  said  that  he  found  him  slow  of 
comprehension. 

JJelvoir,  January  8th. — There  was  a  ball  for  all  the  ser- 
vants and  tenants  on  Monday,  which  the  Duke  of  Rutland 
opened  with  Lady  Georgiana  Fane,  and  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton followed  with  Lady  BrownJow.  Yesterday  half  the  people 
went  to  Belton;  it  was  nearly  impossible  to  get  any  talk  with 
the  Duke.  He  told  me  that  the  Russians  were  in  no  hurry 
to  do  any  overt  act  in  Turkey,  and  that  their  policy  was  as  it 
had  always  been — to  work  very  gradually.  I  asked  him  if  he 


1834.]  CURIOUS   SCRAPS   OF   HISTORY.  211 

thought  they  really  intended  a  permanent  occupation  of  Tur- 
key. He  said  certainly  not;  that  they  could  not  bear  the 
expense  of  a  war,  which  in  that  case  would  ensue;  that  the 
difference  of  the  expense  between  their  own  and  a  foreign 
country  was  as  between  10d.  and  4s.  a  man. 

To-day  I  have  been  all  over  this  Castle ;  the  arrangements 
are  admirable,  and  the  order  and  cleanliness  of  every  part  of 
the  offices  and  the  magnitude  of  the  establishment  are  very 
remarkable,  and  such  as  I  have  never  seen  elsewhere.  This 
afternoon  Gosh  [Mr.  Arbuthnot]  came  and  sat  with  me,  and 
talked  over  all  matters,  which  I  have  heard  from  him  before, 
though  he  has  forgotten  it,  which  he  well  may,  for  his  intel- 
lect, never  very  bright,  seems  to  be  almost  entirely  obscured. 
I  dare  say  I  have  put  down  these  things  before,  but  as  they 
are  curious  scraps  of  history  they  may  as  well  go  down  again. 
It  all  relates  to  the  break-up  of  Lord  Grey's  Government  in 
'32,  and  the  abortive  attempts  of  the  Duke  to  form  an  admin- 
istration. 

The  King  had  given  his  word  that  he  had  never  promised 
to  make  a  single  peer.  Doubts  arose  whether  he  had  not  told 
a  lie;  they  pressed  him  on  this  point  (Wellington  and  Lynd- 
hurst) ;  he  persisted  in  his  denial,  upon  which  they  requested 
Taylor  might  be  sent  for,  and  all  the  correspondence  produced, 
when  they  found  that  he  was  pledged  up  to  the  throat,  and 
without  reserve.  The  King  then  attempted  to  get  out  of  it 
by  saying  he  had  consented  to  call  up  the  sons  of  Scotch 
peers  and  give  to  Irish  peers  English  peerages,  which  he  did 
not  consider  a  creation  of  peers  ! 

When  the  Duke  accepted  the  commission  to  form  a  Govern- 
ment, it  was  resolved  to  prorogue  Parliament,  and  Lyndhurst 
was  desired  by  the  King  to  go  to  Lord  Grey  and  tell  him 
such  was  his  pleasure.  Lyndhurst  forgot  it !  In  after-times, 
those  who  write  the  history  of  these  days  will  probably  dis- 
cuss the  conduct  of  the  great  actors,  and  it  will  not  fail  to  be 
matter  of  surprise  that  such  an  obvious  expedient  was  not  re- 
sorted to,  in  order  to  suspend  violent  discussions.  Among  the 
various  reasons  that  will  be  imagined  and  suggested,  I  doubt 
if  it  will  occur  to  anybody  that  the  real  reason  was  that  it  was 
forgotten. 

Arbuthnot  says  they  know  that  Lyndhurst  was  intriguing 
with  the  Whigs  when  the  Duke  was  turned  out  in  '30,  and 
that  it  had  been  settled  that  he  was  to  remain  their  Chancel- 
lor; and  so  he  would  have  been  if  Brougham  would  have 


212  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

consented  to  be  Attorney-General,  and -had  not  run  restive, 
and  given  clear  indications  of  his  resolution  to  destroy  the 
Government  if  he  was  left  out  of  it.  He  says  that  notwith- 
standing the  duplicity  of  Peel's  conduct  in  1832,  he  and  the 
Duke  are  alwas  on  good  terms,  and  no  great  question  is  ever 
agitated  without  Peel's  coming  to  the  Duke  and  talking  it 
over  with  him  ;  that  Peel  is  determined  to  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  Whigs,  and  told  him  (Arbuthnot)  so  very  lately,  but 
the  High  Tories  are  just  as  unmanageable  as  ever.  Chandos 
came  to  the  Duke  the  other  day,  and  told  him  he  thought  they 
ought  to  get  up  petitions  against  the  malt  tax.  The  Duke 
said  he  would  countenance  no  such  thing;  that  he  thought 
the  revenue  of  the  country  should  be  supported ;  for  if  it 
failed,  recourse  must  be  had  to  a  property  tax,  which  would 
fall  on  the  aristocracy ;  and  so  he  persuaded  him  to  let  the 
malt  tax  alone. 

January  ZQth. — I  left  Belvoir  on  Friday,  the  10th,  and 
went  to  Mrs.  Arkwright's,1  at  Stoke,  where  I  found  nobody 
but  her  own  family.  I  was  well  enough  amused  for  two  days 
with  her  original  conversation  and  her  singing,  and  her  cousin, 
Miss  Twiss,  who,  with  a  face  of  uncommon  plainness  and  the 
voice  of  a  man,  is  sensible  and  well  informed.  Then  they 
both  liked  to  have  me,  and  that  is  a  great  charm ;  a  little 
agreeableness  goes  a  great  way  in  the  Peak,  and  it  is  not 
difficult  to  procure  a  triumph  to  one's  vanity  from  people  who, 
with  a  good  deal  of  power  of  appreciation,  have  very  little 
opportunity  for  comparison,  and  are  therefore  easily  satisfied. 
Arkwright  told  me  that  it  was  reported,  by  those  who  were 
better  informed  than  himself  of  his  father's  circumstances, 
that  he  is  worth  from  seven  to  eight  millions.  His  grand- 
father began  life  as  a  barber,  invented  some  machinery,  got  a 
patent,  and  made  a  fortune.  His  son  gave  him  offense  by  a 
marriage  which  he  disapproved  of,  and  he  quarreled  with  him, 
but  gave  him  a  mill.  Arkwright,  the  son,  saw  nothing  of  his 
father  for  many  years,  but  by  industry  and  ability  accumulated 
great  wealth.  When  Sir  Richard  served  as  Sheriff,  his  son 
thought  it  right  to  go  out  with  the  other  gentlemen  of  the 
county  to  meet  him,  and  the  old  gentleman  was  struck  with 
his  handsome  equipage,  and  asked  to  whom  it  belonged. 
Upon  being  informed,  he  sought  a  reconciliation  with  him,  and 

1  [Mrs.  Arkwrighl  was  a  Kemble  by  birth,  and  had  much  of  the  musical  and 
dramatic  genius  of  that  gifted  family.  Her  singing  was  most  touching,  and 
some  of  her  musical  compositions  were  full  of  originality  and  expression.] 


1834.]  SIR   THOMAS   LAWRENCE'S  ENGAGEMENTS.  213 

was  astonished  to  find  that  his  son  was  as  rich  as  himself. 
From  that  time  they  continued  on  good  terms,  and  at  his 
death  he  bequeathed  him  the  bulk  of  his  property. 

Mrs.  Arkwright  told  me  the  curious  story  of  Sir  Thomas 
Lawrence's  engagements  with  her  two  cousins,  the  daughters 
of  Mrs.  Siddons.  They  were  two  sisters,  one  tall  and  very 
handsome,  the  other  little,  without  remarkable  beauty,  but 
very  clever  and  agreeable.  He  fell  in  love  with  the  first,  and 
they  were  engaged  to  be  married.  Of  course  under  such  cir- 
cumstances he  lived  constantly  and  freely  in  the  house,  and 
after  some  time  the  superior  intelligence  of  the  clever  sister 
changed  the  current  of  his  passion,  and  she  supplanted  the 
handsome  one  in  the  affection  of  the  artist.  They -concealed 
the  double  treachery,  but  one  day  a  note  which  was  intended  for 
his  new  love  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  old  love,  who,  never 
doubting  it  was  for  herself,  opened  it,  and  discovered  the  fatal 
truth.  From  that  time  she  drooped,  sickened,  and  shortly 
after  died.  On  her  deathbed  she  exacted  a  promise  from  her 
sister  that  she  would  never  marry  Lawrence,  who  firmly  ad- 
hered to  it.  He  continued  his  relations  with  her  with  more  or 
less  intimacy  up  to  the  period  of  her  death,  the  date  of  which 
I  do  not  recollect. 

From  Stoke  I  went  on  Monday,  13th,  to  Drakelow,  which 
Sir  Roger  Gresley  has  lent  to  Craufurd,  and  staid  there  two 
nights.  It  is  a  miserable  place,  with  the  Trent  running  under 
the  windows,  and  Lord  Anglesey's  land  close  to  the  door. 
Thence  on  Wednesday  to  Runton  Abbey — Lord  Lichfield's — 
who  has  added  to  it  a  farm-house,  and  made  a  residence  in 
the  midst  of  his  property,  where  he  has  the  best  shooting  in 
England.  He  and  I  went  out  the  day  after  I  got  there,  and 
killed  41  pheasants,  74  hares,  24  rabbits,  8  woodcocks,  and  8 
partridges.  He  is  a  fine  fellow,  with  an  excellent  disposition, 
liberal,  hospitable,  frank  and  gay,  quick  and  intelligent,  with- 
out cultivation,  extravagant  and  imprudent,  with  considerable 
aptitude  for  business;  between  spending  and  speculating, 
buying  property  in  one  place,  selling  in  another,  and  declin- 
ing to  sell  in  a  third,  he  has  half  ruined  a  noble  estate. 

Just  before  I  got  there  a  murder  had  been  committed  close 
to  his  house  under  very  curious  circumstances,  of  which  some 
notice  appeared  in  the  newspapers.  A  soldier  in  the  Artillery 
got  a  legacy  of  £500,  with  which  he  bought  his  discharge, 
went  down  to  the  village  near  Runton,  and  took  a  very  pretty 
girl  of  indifferent  character  to  live  with  him.  He  gave  her 


214  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

shawls  and  trinkets,  and  spent  a  good  deal  of  money  on  her. 
Having  addicted  himself  immoderately  to  drink,  he  soon 
spent  all  his  money,  and,  to  supply  himself  with  the  means  of 
getting  drunk,  he  began  robbing  his  mistress  of  the  articles  he 
had  given  her.  It  happened  that  about  this  time  somebody 
in  the  village  who  had  been  robbed  consulted  a  cunning  man 
of  great  repute  in  the  neighborhood,  and  so  alarmed  was  the 
thief  at  the  bare  idea  of  what  this  oracle  might  utter,  that  the 
stolen  property  was  secretly  restored.  The  girl  upon  hearing 
of  this  restitution  resolved  to  have  resource  to  the  cunning 
man,  and  invited  her  lover  to  escort  her  to  his  abode.  After 
endeavoring  in  vain  to  dissuade  her  they  set  out  together,  but 
he  was  so  overcome  with  terror  as  he  went  along  that  he 
stopped  short  in  the  road  and  refused  to  proceed.  On  this  the 
girl  said  that  it  was  easy  to  see  who  was  the  thief,  and  that 
the  reason  he  would  not  face  the  conjurer  was  that  he  was 
conscious  of  his  own  guilt.  Upon  this  they  fell  to  high  words, 
then  to  blows,  and  he  finished  by  murdering  her.  He  did  not 
attempt  to  escape,  but  repaired  to  a  public-house,  where  he 
was  soon  after  taken  into  custody.  He  acknowledged  the 
crime,  and  said  he  was  weary  of  life,  and  deserved  to  be 
hanged.  Here  is  an  example  of  the  miserable  effects  of  good 
fortune  upon  a  man  who  was  unfit  to  use  it,  and  of  the  strange 
superstition  of  the  common  people.  The  murderer  will  be 
tried  at  the  next  assizes. 

I  staid  at  Runton  till  Sunday,  19th,  when  I  came  here,1 
where  there  was  nobody  but  the  family  and  Ralph  Sneyd. 
The  place  is  exceedingly  beautiful,  and  arranged  with  excel- 
lent taste.  It  has  been  very  agreeable.  Lady  Harrowby  is 
superior  to  all  the  women  I  have  ever  known ;  "  her  talk  is 
so  crisp,"  as  Luttrell  once  said  of  her.  She  has  no  imagi- 
nation, no  invention,  no  eloquence,  no  deep  reading  or  re- 
tentive memory,  but  a  noble,  straightforward,  independent 
character,  a  sound  and  vigorous  understanding,  penetration, 
judgment,  taste.  She  is  perfectly  natural,  open  and  sincere, 
loves  conversation  and  social  enjoyment;  with  her  intimate 
friends  there  is  an  abandon  and  unreserved  communion  of 
thoughts,  feelings,  and  opinions,  which  renders  her  society 
delightful.  Of  all  the  women  I  ever  saw  she  unites  the 
most  masculine  mind  with  the  most  feminine  heart.  Lord 

1  [This  must  have  been  written  at  Sandon,  Lord  Harrowby's  scat  in  Stafford- 
shire, but  the  entry  is  not  dated.] 


1834.]  LORD   HARROWBY.  215 

Harrowby l  has  all  tlie  requisites  of  disagrceableness,  a  tart, 
short,  provoking  manner,  with  manners  at  once  pert  and 
rigid ;  but  he  is  full  of  information,  and  if  made  best  of  may 
yield  a  good  deal  of  desirable  knowledge.  Though  not  illib- 
eral in  politics,  he  has  fallen  into  the  High  Tory  despondency 
about  the  prospects  of  the  country,  and  anticipates  every  evil 
that  the  most  timid  alarmist  can  suggest.  Still,  justice  should 
be  rendered  to  Lord  Harrowby ;  a  purer  and  more  disinterested 
statesman  never  existed.  He  was  always  dev&id  of  selfish- 
ness and  ambition,  honorable  and  conscientious  to  a  degree 
which  rendered  him  incapable  of  a  sordid  or  oblique  action. 
Always  acute,  but  sometimes  crotchety,  he  had  the  same  fault 
in  politics  which  was  the  reproach  of  Lord  Eldon  in  law — in- 
decision ;  and  this  in  no  small  degree  impaired  both  his 
efficacy  and  his  authority.  His  great  idol  was  Pitt,  and,  after 
him,  he  was  the  friend  and  admirer  of  Perceval.  Bred  in  their 
school,  and  a  Tory  by  taste,  by  habit,  and  in  opinion,  it  is  not 
a  little  to  his  honor  that  he  was  able  to  comprehend  the 
mighty  changes  which  time  and  circumstances  had  effected, 
and  to  perceive  that  an  inflexible  adherence  to  High  Tory  max- 
ims was  dangerous,  because  their  practical  operation  was  no 
longer  possible ;  but  justice  must  be  rendered  to  him  hereafter, 
for  he  will  never  obtain  it  in  his  own  time.  By  endeavoring 
to  steer  between  the  two  great  and  exasperated  factions  he 
became  thoroughly  obnoxious  to  both.  After  having  refused 
the  post  of  Prime  Minister,  no  one  can  doubt  the  sincerity  of 
his  desire  to  retire  from  public  life,  and  in  the  consciousness 
of  rectitude,  the  disgust  of  parties,  and  a  calm  and  dignified 
philosophy,  he  finds  ample  consolation  for  all  the  obloquy  with 
which  he  has  been  assailed. 

JBurffhley,  January  28th. — Came  here  yesterday,  and  found 
Lady  Clinton,  Lady  Frederic  Bentinck,  Lyne  Stephens  and 
Irby,  not  amusing.  Captain  Spencer  came  to-day.  I  had 
almost  forgotten  the  house,  which  is  surprisingly  grand  in  all 
respects,  though  the  living  rooms  are  not  numerous  or  hand- 
some enough.  I  just  missed  Peel,  who  went  to  Belvoir  yes- 
terday. I  heard  wonderful  things  of  railroads  and  steam  when 
I  was  in  Staffordshire,  yet  by  the  time  anybody  reads  what  I 
now  write  (if  anybody  ever  does),  how  they  will  smile  per- 
haps at  what  I  gape  and  stare  at,  and  call  wonderful,  with 
such  accelerated  velocity  do  we  move  on.  Stephenson,  the 


1  [Dudley  Ryder,  second  Baron  and  first  Earl  of  Harrowby,  born  in  1762, 
married  in  1795  Susan,  a  daughter  of  the  " 


Marquis  of  Stafford.] 


216  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

great  engineer,  told  Lichfield  that  he  had  traveled  on  the 
Manchester  and  Liverpool  railroad  for  many  miles  at  the  rate 
of  a  mile  a  minute,  that  his  doubt  was  not  how  fast  his 
engines  could  be  made  to  go,  but  at  what  pace  it  would  be 
proper  to  stop,  that  he  could  make  them  travel  with  greater 
speed  than  any  bird  can  cleave  the  air,  and  that  he  had  ascer- 
tained that  400  miles  an  hour  was  the  extreme  velocity  which 
the  human  frame  could  endure,  at  which  it  could  move  and 
exist. 

February  \st, — Lord  Wharncliffe  has  been  here  and  is 
gone.  He,  like  Harrowby,  is  very  dismal  about  the  prospects 
of  the  country,  and  thinks  we  are  gravitating  toward  a  revolu- 
tion. He  says  that  the  constituency  of  the  great  towns  is 
composed  of  ultra-Radicals,  and  that  no  gentleman  with  really 
independent  and  conservative  principles  can  sit  for  them,  that 
the  great  majority  of  the  manufacturers  and  of  the  respectable 
persons  of  the  middle  class  are  moderate,  and  hostile  to  sub- 
version and  violent  measures,  but  that  their  influence  is 
overwhelmed  by  the  numerical  strength  of  the  low  voters, 
who  want  to  go  all  lengths.  He  says  that  he  has  received 
greater  marks  of  deference  and  respect  in  his  own  county, 
and  especially  at  Sheffield,  where  a  short  time  ago  he 
would  have  been  in  danger  of  being  torn  in  pieces,  than 
he  ever  experienced,  but  that  he  could  no  more  bring  a  son 
in  for  Sheffield  than  he  could  fly  in  the  air.  Sir  John  Beck- 
ett is  just  gone  to  stand  for  Leeds,  and  certainly  the  cate- 
chism to  which  he  was  there  forced  to  submit  is  very  om- 
inous. A  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons  will  cease  to  be 
an  object  of  ambition  to  honorable  and  independent  men, 
if  it  can  only  be  obtained  by  cringing  and  servility  to  the 
rabble  of  great  towns,  and  when  it  shall  be  established  that 
the  member  is  to  be  a  slave,  bound  hand  and  foot  by  pledges, 
and  responsible  for  every  vote  he  gives  to  masters  who  are 
equally  tyrannical  and  unreasonable.  I  know  nothing  more 
difficult  than  to  form  a  satisfactory  opinion  upon  the  real  state 
and  prospects  of  the  country  amid  the  conflicting  prejudices 
and  impressions  of  individuals  of  different  parties  and  persua- 
sions, and  there  are  so  many  circumstances  that  tell  different 
ways,  that  at  this  moment  my  judgment  is  entirely  suspended 
on  the  subject. 

George  Villiers  gave  a  deplorable  account  of  the  state  of 
Spain,  but  he  (unlike  the  Duke  of  Wellington)  thinks  that 
the  only  chance  of  safety  for  the  Queen  is  to  make  common 


1831.]  A   SQUABBLE   IN   THE   COMMONS.  217 

cause  with  the  Liberals.  He  has  been  greatly  instrumental 
to  Zea's  removal,  having  conveyed  to  the  Queen  Regent  that 
England  by  no  means  considered  his  continuance  in  the  Min- 
istry indispensable,  and  this  intimation,  together  with  the 
storm  which  assailed  him  from  all  parts,  determined  her  to 
dismiss  him.  Palmerston  has  never  written  to  George  Villiers 
once  since  October.  I  heard  the  same  thing  of  him  in  some 
other  case,  I  forget  which. 

February  6th. — Returned  to  town  yesterday  from  New- 
market, which  I  took  in  my  way  from  Burghley.  Parlia- 
ment had  opened  the  day  before,  with  a  long  nothingy  (a 
word  I  have  coined)  speech  from  the  throne,  in  which  the 
most  remarkable  points  were  a  violent  declaration  against 
O'Connell,  that  is,  against  Irish  agitation,  and  strong  ex- 
pressions of  amity  with  France.  It  is  comical  to  compare 
the  language  of  the  very  silly  old  gentleman  who  wears  the 
crown,  in  his  convivial  moments,  and  in  the  openness  of  his 
heart,  with  that  which  his  Ministers  cra'm  into  his  mouth, 
each  sentiment  being  uttered  with  equal  energy  and  apparent 
sincerity.  Lord  Grey  is  said  to  have  made  a  very  good  speech 
on  the  Address.  The  House  of  Commons  has  commenced 
with  all  the  dullness  imaginable,  but  it  was  enlivened  last 
night  by  a  squabble  on  the  Hill  and  Shiel  business 1  (dragged 
on  by  O'Connell),  and  the  ultimate  arrest  of  Althorp  and 
Shiel  by  the  Sergeant -at-arms,  a  very  foolish  affair,  which 
must  end  as  it  began,  in  much  declaiming  and  swearing,  and 
no  positive  conviction,  though  complete  moral  certitude. 
It  afforded  much  amusement,  as  every  thing  personally  does. 
The  present  expectation  is  that  the  session  will  go  off  rather 
quietly. 

February  13th. — It  is  observed  by  everybody  that  there 
never  was  a  session  of  Parliament  which  opened  with  such 
an  appearance  of  apathy  as  this.  After  the  violent  excite- 

1  [Mr.  Hill,  a  member  of  Parliament,  had  stated  in  a  speech  that  some  of 
tho  Irish  members  moat  vehemently  opposed  to  the  Coercion  Bill  in  the  House 
of  Commons  had  nevertheless  privately  stated  to  members  of  the  Government, 
that  they  were  glad  tho  Act  should  be  renewed.  This  charge  was  denied  with 
great  heat  by  the  Irish  members  in  the  House  when  Parliament  met.  But 
upon  Mr.  Shiel's  calling  upon  Lord  Althorp  to  state  whether  he  was  one  of  the 
members  alluded  to,  Lord  Althorp  replied  that  the  honorable  gentleman  was 
one  of  them.  Shiel  immediately  denied  it  in  the  most  solemn  and  emphatic 
terms ;  and  as  it  was  feared  that  a  hostile  meeting  might  ensue  between  him 
and  Lord  Althorp,  they  were  both  taken  into  custody  by  the  Sergeant-at-arms. 
Further  explanations  ensued,  and  Lord  Althorp  subsequently  withdrew  the 
charge,  stating  that  he  believed  Mr.  Shiel's  asseveration,  and  that  he  must  him- 
self have  been  misinformed.] 

32 


218  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [Ciup.  XXII. 

raent  which  has  almost  incessantly  prevailed  for  the  last  two 
years  or  more,  men's  minds  seem  exhausted,  and  though  the 
undergrowl  of  political  rancor  is  still  heard,  and  a  feeble 
cry  of  the  Church  is  in  danger,  on  the  whole  there  is  less 
bitterness  and  animosity,  and  a  tolerably  fair  promise  that 
things  will  go  on  in  a  smooth  and  even  course.  The  storm 
that  impended  over  Europe  has  blown  off,  and  there  seems 
to  be  no  danger  of  any  interruption  of  the  peace.  Esterhazy 
and  Madame  de  Lieven  both  told  me  last  night  that  they 
thought  so  now,  and  the  former  that  he  had  told  Palmerston 
that  we  might  rely  upon  Austria's  not  being  an  indifferent 
spectator  of  the  political  conduct  of  Russia,  and  if  we  would 
place  confidence  in  them,  they  would  not  only  prevent  any 
dangerous  aggression  on  the  part  of  Russia  in  Europe,  but 
would  take  such  measures  as  should  contribute  largely  to  the 
security  of  our  Eastern  dominions,  though  that  was  no  object 
of  immediate  interest  to  them.  Madame  de  Lieven  told  me 
that  it  was  impossible  to  describe  the  contempt  as  well  as 
dislike  which  the  whole  corps  diplomatique  had  for  Palmer- 
ston, and  pointing  to  Talleyrand,  who  was  sitting  close  by, 
"  surtout  lui."  They  have  the  meanest  opinion  of  his  capacity, 
and  his  manners  are  the  reverse  of  conciliatory.  She  cannot 
imagine  how  his  colleagues  bear  with  him,  and  Lord  Grey 
supports  him  vehemently.  The  only  friend  he  has  in  the 
Cabinet  is  Graham,  who  has  no  weight.  His  unpopularity  in 
his  own  office  is  quite  as  great  as  it  is  among  the  foreign  min- 
isters, and  he  does  nothing,  so  that  they  do  not  make  up  in 
respect  for  what  they  want  in  inclination.  George  Villiers 
complains  that  for  above  three  months  he  has  not  received  a 
single  line  from  him,  and  he  is  a  young  minister,  unpractised 
in  the  profession,  to  whom  is  committed  the  most  delicate  and 
difficult  mission  in  Europe.  He  spends  his  time  in  making 

love  to  Mrs.  P ,  whom  he  takes  to  the  House  of  Commons 

to  hear  speeches  which  he  does  not  make,  and  where  he  ex- 
hibits his  conquest,  and  certainly  it  is  the  best  of  his  exploits, 
but  what  a  successor  of  Canning,  whom  by-the-way  he  affects 
to  imitate  !  What  would  be  Canning's  indignation  if  he  could 
look  from  his  grave  and  see  these  new  Reformers,  who  ape 
him  in  his  worst  qualities,  and  who  blunder  and  bluster  in  the 
seat  which  he  once  filled  with  such  glory  and  success !  It 
must  be  owned  that  we  are  in  a  curious  condition,  and  if  the 
character  of  the  Government,  moral  and  intellectual,  be  ana- 
lyzed, it  will  exhibit  a  very  astonishing  result :  with  a  great 


1834.]  SIRS.   SOMERVILLE.  219 

deal  of  loose  talent  of  one  sort  or  another  scattered  about  it, 
but  mixed  with  so  much  alloy  that,  compounded  as  it  is,  the 
metal  seems  very  base.  However,  we  are  not  likely  to  get 
any  thing  better,  and  these  people  will  very  likely  hammer 
on  tolerably  well. 

Since  Parliament  met,  the  foolish  business  of  Shiel  and 
Hill  has  been  the  sole  topic  of  discussion,  to  the  unspeakable 
disgust  of  every  sensible  person  in  and  out  of  the  House.  All 
feel  the  embarrassment,  the  ridicule,  the  disgrace  of  such  an 
occupation,  and  the  members  of  Parliament  are  provoked  that 
the  affair  was  not  strangled  at  the  outset.  The  Speaker  is 
now  generally  blamed  for  not  having  prevented  Althorp  from 
answering  O'Connell's  question,  which  he  ought  to  have  done, 
at  least  ought  to  have  warned  the  House  of  the  consequences, 
when  undoubtedly  the  matter  would  have  been  stiQed.  Thej- 
say  Althorp  did  what  he  had  to  do  very  well,  like  a  gentleman 
and  man  of  honor,  and  in  excellent  style  and  taste,  though 
many  think  he  need  not  have  said  so  much.  The  committee 
began  to  sit  yesterday ;  it  was  not  a  secret  committee,  but 
they  agreed  to  request  members  not  to  come  in ;  however,  the 
tail  would  go  in,  and  they  found  it  would  be  a  difficult  matter 
to  exclude  them,  for  which  reason,  and  because  Shiel  had  no 
friend  on  the  committee,  they  unanimously  agreed  that  the 
House  should  be  invited  to  add  CTConnell  to  it,  and  after  some 
difficulty,  raised  by  John  Russell,  this  was  consented  to. 

February  14£/i. — Last  night  at  Miss  Berry's  met  Mrs. 
Somerville,  the  great  mathematician.  I  had  been  reading  in 
the  morning  Sedgwick's  sermon  on  education,  in  which  he 
talks  of  Whewell,  Airy,  and  Mrs.  Somerville,  mentioning  her 
as  one  of  the  great  luminaries  of  the  present  day.  The  subject 
of  astronomy  is  so  sublime  that  one  shrinks  into  a  sense  of 
nothingness  in  contemplating  it,  and  can't  help  regarding 
those  who  have  mastered  the  mighty  process  and  advanced 
the  limits  of  the  science  as  beings  of  another  order.  I  could 
not  then  take  my  eyes  off  this  woman,  with  a  feeling  of  sur- 
prise and  something  like  incredulity,  all  involuntary  and  very 
foolish ;  but  to  see  a  mincing,  smirking  person,  fan  in  hand, 
gliding  about  the  room,  talking  nothings  and  nonsense,  and 
to  know  that  La  Place  was  her  plaything  and  Newton  her 
acquaintance,  was  too  striking  a  contrast  not  to  torment  the 
brain.  It  was  Newton's  mantle,  trimmed  and  flounced  by 
Muradan. 

February  Ylth. — In  the  House  of  Commons  the  Shiel  com- 


220  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

mittee  came  to  a  sudden  termination.  It  was  a  silly  and  dis- 
creditable business,  and  people  were  glad  it  ended.  The 
course  adopted  was  this :  they  took  the  Examiner  newspaper, 
containing  the  paragraph  inculpatory  of  Shiel,  and  they  called 
on  Hill  to  prove  his  case.  Hill  called  witnesses,  one  of  whom, 
Macaulay,  refused  to  speak.  He  said  he  would  not  repeat 
what  had  passed  in  private  conversation.  The  committee 
approved,  and  Hill  threw  up  his  case,  held  out  his  hand 
"  with  strong  emotion  "  to  Shiel,  made  ample  apologies,  and 
Shiel  was  acquitted.  Then  came  the  apologies  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  Peel  told  me  that  he  was  convinced  Shiel  really 
had  never  said  what  was  imputed  to  him ;  but  that  he  had 
said  something  tantamount,  though  very  loosely,  is  probable, 
and  the  people  who  had  told  Althorp  would  not  come  forward 
to  bear  him  out,  so  that  he  was  forced  to  apologize  too,  but 
he  did  it  very  reluctantly.  The  Irishmen,  however,  had  not 
done,  and  O'Dwyer  (formerly  a  reporter)  attacked  Pease, 
asked  for  explanations,  his  card  and  address.  Pease,  who  is 
a  Quaker,  said  "  he  gave  no  explanations  but  on  his  legs  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  had  no  card  and  no  address." 

But  there  was  a  more  serious  matter  than  Shiel  and  Hill's 
trash  —  O'Connell's  attack  upon  Baron  Smith,  the  circum- 
stances of  which  exemplify  the  way  the  House  of  Commons 
is  managed  under  Althorp's  auspices,  and  the  general  mode 
of  proceeding  of  the  Government  there.  O'Connell  gave 
notice  of  a  motion  for  an  address  to  the  Crown  to  remove 
the  Baron.  Government  resolved  to  oppose  it.  Littleton 
authorized  Shaw  to  write  to  him  and  say  so,  and  that  he 
would  say  nothing  in  the  debate  offensive  to  him,  though  he 
could  not  but  disapprove  of  his  charge.  Nobody  thought  of 
any  support  the  motion  would  receive  beyond  that  of  the  tail. 
The  Ministers  came  down  to  the  House  in  this  mind.  Stanley 
and  Graham  went  away  for  some  purpose  or  other,  and,  when 
they  came  back,  they  found  that  O'Connell  had  altered  the 
terms  of  his  motion,  and  that  Althorp,  Littleton,  and  the 
Solicitor-General,  had  agreed  to  support  it ;  in  short,  that 
O'Connell  had  laid  a  trap  for  them,  and  they  had  gone  ding- 
dong  into  it.  Stanley  was  very  angry  and  much  annoyed,  but, 
the  thing  being  done,  he  knocked  under,  and  tried  to  bolster 
up  the  business.  Graham  would  not,  and,  in  a  maudlin,  stu- 
pid sort  of  speech,  declared  his  opposition,  which  was  honest 
enough.  All  this  annoyed  the  Government  very  much,  and 
now  O'Connell  is  said  to  be  quite  satisfied  with  Avhat  he  has 


1834.]  ALTHOKP'S  FINANCIAL   STATEMENT.  221 

• 

done,  and  does  not  want  to  have  a  committee,  but  (having 
thrown  a  slur  on  the  Judge  by  the  vote  of  Parliament)  to  let 
the  matter  drop.  Spring  Rice  also  voted  against  the  Govern- 
ment, and  said  that  he  had  never  known  a  worse  case  since  he 
sat  in  Parliament,  and  that  nothing  could  be  more  mischiev- 
ous than  the  effect  such  a  vote  would  produce  in  Ireland. 
Scarlett,  Peel,  and  Spankie,  made  very  good  speeches  ;  Stan- 
ley, John  Russell,  and  Campbell,  as  bad. 

The  same  night  Althorp  made  his  financial  statement, 
exhibiting  a  surplus  revenue  and  reduction  of  taxation,  all 
very  flourishing  and  promising;  but  in  announcing  his  in- 
tended reduction  of  the  House  Tax,  he  said  without  any  dis- 
guise that  he  did  not  think  it  an  objectionable  tax,  but  that 
he  took  it  off  on  account  of  the  clamor  against  it.  Here  are 
three  exhibitions  in  one  week,  and  this  is  the  Minister  of  our 
finances  and  organ  of  Government  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
No  matter  how  he  blunders  in  word  or  deed,  he  smiles  in 
dogged  good-humor  at  ridicule  or  abuse ;  his  intentions  are 
good,  his  mind  is  straightforward,  and  his  conscious  rectitude, 
his  personal  popularity,  enable  him  to  commit  his  blunders 
with  impunity;  but  the  authority  of  Government  suffers  in 
his  hands ;  maxims  get  into  vogue  which  are  incompatible 
with  good  and  strong  government,  and  the  effects  of  his  weak- 
ness and  facility  may  be  felt  long  after  the  cessation  of  their 
immediate  operation. 

February  ~L§th. — Last  night  Whittle  Harvey's  motion  on 
the  Pension  List.  He  made  admirable  speeches ;  but  had  a 
majority  of  nine,  against  him.  This  division  is  not  a  bad  ex- 
emplification of  the  state  of  parties  and  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. Some  of  the  Tories  voted  (in  the  majority  of  course), 
many  others  would  not.  I  asked  one  of  them  (Henry  Hope, 
a  man  of  no  consequence,  certainly)  if  he  was  not  going  to 
vote.  "  No,"  he  said,  "  I  shall  not  vote,  the  Government  must 
manage  their  own  business  as  they  can."  He  would  not  vote 
against  a  proposition  he  must  regard  with  the  greatest  aver- 
sion, because  he  would  thereby  be  supporting  the  Government, 
and  prefers  the  chance  of  giving  a  victory  to  the  Radicals, 
establishing  a  dangerous  principle,  and  doing  a  great  injury 
to  a  host  of  individuals,  the  greater  part  of  whom  are  of  his 
own  party  or  among  his  own  friends,  because  he  thinks  that 
the  result  may  be  productive  oS  some  embarrassment  to 
Ministers.  This  is  one  of  the  cases  in  which  the  conduct  of 
Government  has  been  such  as  their  bitterest  enemies  must 


233  RSIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  |  CHAP.  XXII 

« 

applaud,  when  they  risk  their  popularity  to  support  a  very 
unsightly  list  of  pensions,  not  granted  by  themselves,  or  to 
their  friends,  from  a  sense  of  justice;  and  yet  these  high 
Tories  will  not  support  them  even  in  righting  such  a  battle  as 
this.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Government  reject  their  support 
when  they  might  avail  themselves  of  it  against  the  Radicals 
and  ultra- Whigs,  in  such  a  case  as  that  of  Baron  Smith  the 
other  night ;  and  so  ill  blood  is  constantly  increasing  between 
them,  while  O'Connell  and  his  tail  and  the  Radical  black- 
guards sit  by  and  chuckle  at  the  evils  these  mutual  jealousies 
and  antipathies  produce.  Richmond  told  me  yesterday  that 
Stanley  was  greatly  annoyed  at  Baron  Smith's  affair;  but 
finding  the  mischief  done  and  feeling  the  embarrassment  that 
would  arise  from  his  opposing  Althorp,  he  threw  himself  into 
the  breach ;  said  he  had  advised  him  never  to  do  so  again. 
The  conduct  of  Althorp,  Littleton,  and  Campbell,  is  inconceiv- 
able, unless  it  were  to  give  a  fresh  triumph  to  O'Connell  (he 
has  just  carried  Dungarvan,  Jacob  vs.  Baron  ;  "  it  is  the  voice 
of  Jacob  but  the  hand  of  Esau  "),  who  has  had  his  own  way 
hitherto  in  this  Parliament.  In  this  business  and  in  Shiel's 
he  has  done  just  what  he  pleased,  and  made  the  Government 
appear  in  as  pitiful  a  light  as  he  could  possibly  desire. 
O'Dwyer  told  the  Speaker  that  O'Connell  had  never  expected 
or  even  wished  that  Ministers  should  give  way  to  him  to  the 
extent  they  did. 

Knatchbull  has  given  notice  of  a  motion  to  reverse  the 
decision  for  a  committee  on  the  case  of  Baron  Smith,  and  in 
conjunction  with  Peel.  It  must  embarrass  the  Government, 
but  it  is  not,  I  think,  judicious,  because  it  is  not  the  same 
question,  and  affords  them  the  opportunity  of  treating  it  on 
different  grounds.  In  the  division  last  night  the  three  Lenoxes 
all  voted  with  the  minority,  brothers  of  the  Cabinet  Minister, 
and  all  their  sisters  being  on  the  Pension  List.  Molyneux  was 
going  out,  and  was  forcibly  retained  by  Stanley.  It  looks  as 
if  the  whipping-in  was  very  unskillfully  managed.  Notwith- 
standing the  present  prosperity  and  tranquillity,  it  is  impossi- 
ble not  to  be  disturbed  at  the  mode  in  which  business  is  con- 
ducted in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  at  the  state  and  animus 
of  parties,  and  above  all  at  Althorp  being  the  leader  there. 
His  character  is  peculiarly  fitted  to  do  mischief  in  these  times, 
and  his  virtues  are  unfortunate,  for  they  serve  to  bolster  him 
up,  and  to  keep  him  where  he  is  in  spite  of  his  blunders.  His 
temper  is  so  admirable,  his  personal  popularity  so  great,  that 


1851.1  A  VAST   AND    UNRULY   BODY.  223 

there  is  an  impression  that  the  House  will  be  led  by  him  more 
easily  than  by  Stanley,  who  alone,  of  the  present  Govern- 
ment, could  aspire  to  that  post.  Nobody  imputes  to  Althorp 
a  spark  of  ambition,  and  ample  credit  is  given  him  for  the 
most  disinterested  motives,  and  for  making  a  great  personal 
sacrifice  in  retaining  his  present  situation.  The  consciousness 
of  this  makes  him  comparatively  indifferent  to  victory  or  de- 
feat, and  careless  of  that  nice  management  which  formerly  was 
indispensable  in  a  leader.  He  seems  totally  blind  to  the  con- 
sequences of  his  errors,  and  the  advantage  that  is  taken  of 
them  by  those  who  not  only  meditate  mischief  to  the  Adminis- 
tration, but  to  the  great  interests  they  are  bound  to  protect. 
Occurrences  and  circumstances  that  would  have  filled  former 
leaders  with  vexation,  and  their  followers  with  dismay,  seem 
to  pass  over  him  without  ruffling  his  serenity  or  alarming  his 
mind.  He  acts  as  if  in  utter  unconsciousness  of  a  restless 
spirit  of  popular  aggrandizement,  as  if  the  House  of  Commons 
was  an  innoxious  and  manageable  machine,  as  if  it  was  suffi- 
cient to  mean  well,  and  he  lets  matters  take  their  chance, 
without  any  of  that  vigilant  and  systematic  direction  which, 
if  guided  by  a  nice  discrimination,  might  regulate  the  move- 
ments and  check  the  eccentricities  of  this  vast  and  unruly 
body.  Since  the  opening  of  this  session,  all  that  he  has  said 
and  done  has  proved  his  utter  unfitness  for  the  place  he 
occupies.  First,  his  imprudent  answers  to  O'Connell,  and 
the  turn  he  gave  to  that  affair.  Then,  in  bringing  forward 
his  financial  statement,  the  na'ivet6  with  which  he  admitted 
that  he  had  submitted  to  the  clamor  against  the  House  Tax, 
and  withdrawn  it  contrary  to  his  own  judgment ;  then  the 
facility  with  which  he  gave  in  to  O'Connell's  motion  about 
the  Irish  Judge,  and  threw  over  his  colleagues  and  his 
party  without  an  apparent  reason  or  motive.  It  produces  a 
feeling  allied  to  despair,  all  security  is  at  an  end,  for  that 
which  would  be  produced  by  his  good  intentions  is  destroyed 
by  reflecting  on  his  miserable  judgment ;  half  republican  in 
his  principles,  and  incredulous  of  any  danger  to  be  apprehend- 
ed from  the  continual  increase  of  popular  influences  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  he  does  not  perceive  how  much  the 
authority  of  a  leader  is  diminished  in  his  hands,  and  how  diffi- 
cult it  will  be  for  any  successor  of  his  to  gain  that  sort  of 
ascendency  which  is  indispensable  for  the  effective  conduct  of 
public  business,  and  the  moral  character  of  the  Government. 
To  effect  this,  besides  great  talents,  great  tact,  discretion,  . 


124:  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

sagacity,  and  temper,  will  be  required  ;  more,  I  fear,  than  fall 
to  the  share  of  Stanley,  who  is  better  qualified  to  be  a  de- 
bater than  a  leader.  Moderate  men,  wiio  do  not  approve  of 
this  Government,  but  who  do  not  desire  to  turn  them  out,  if 
they  would  only  act  upon  tolerably  conservative  principles, 
are  thrown  into  despair  by  the  behavior  of  Althorp,  and  re- 
gard with  consternation  the  inevitable  increase  of  anarchy  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  consequent  prevalence  of  Radical 
principles,  from  the  sluggish,  inert,  vacillating,  unforeseeing 
character  he  displays.1 

February  %%d. — Went  to  the  House  of  Commons  last 
night,  where  I  had  not  been  for  many  years.  A  great  change, 
and  hardly  a  human  being  whose  face  I  knew.  I  heard  the 
end  of  the  debate  on  Chandos's  motion,  when  Peel  gave 
O'Connell  a  severe  dressing,  and  I  heard  the  debate  on  re- 
scinding the  order  for  a  committee  on  Baron  Smith.  Shaw, 
who  held  the  Baron's  brief,  made  a  very  fine  speech,  but 
afforded  a  memorable  example  of  the  danger  of  saying  too 
much,  and  of  the  importance  of  knowing  when  to  stop.  Not 
contented  with  a  very  powerful  and  eloquent  appeal,  which 
he  wound  up  with  an  energetic  peroration,  he  suffered  himself 
to  be  led  away  into  a  tirade  about  O'Connell's  enmity  to  reli- 
gion, and,  instead  of  ending,  as  he  might  have  done,  with 
shouts  of  applause,  was  coughed  and  "  questioned  "  to  the 
close ;  Stanley  made  a  wretched  speech ;  O'Connell  very 
bad ;  affecting  to  be  moderate,  he  was  only  dull.  Peel 
spoke  very  shortly,  but  very  well  indeed.  Peel's  is  an  en- 
viable position  ;  in  the  prime  of  life,  with  an  immense  for- 
tune, facile  princeps  in  the  House  of  Commons,  unshackled 
by  party  connections  and  prejudices,  universally  regarded  as 
the  ablest  man,  and  with  (on  the  whole)  a  very  high  charac- 
ter, free  from  the  cares  of  office,  able  to  devote  himself  to 
literature,  to  politics,  or  idleness,  as  the  fancy  takes  him. 
No  matter  how  unruly  the  House,  how  impatient  or  fatigued, 
the  moment  he  rises  all  is  silence,  and  he  is  sure  of  being 
heard  with  profound  attention  and  respect.  This  is  the  en- 
joyable period  of  his  life,  and  he  must  make  the  most  of  it, 

1  [These  remarks  made  at  the  time  are  not  altogether  just  to  Lord  Althorp, 
and  it  is  now  well  known  from  other  sources,  equally  authentic,  that  he  was 
more  conscious  than  any  one  else  was  of  his  own  shortcomings,  and  passion- 
ately desirous  to  be  released  from  office.  But  it  was  notorious  that  the  retire- 
ment of  Lord  Althorp  from  the  leadership  of  the  House  of  Commons  would  ho 
the  signal  for  the  dissolution  of  Earl  Grey's  Government,  and  so  within  a  few 
months  the  result  proved.] 


1834.]  PEEL'S   GREAT   MERIT.  225 

for,  when  time  and  the  hour  shall  bring  about  his  return  to 
power,  his  cares  and  anxieties  will  begin,  and,  with  whatever 
success  his  ambition  may  hereafter  be  crowned,  he  will 
hardly  fail  to  look  back  with  regret  to  this  holiday  time  of 
his  political  career.  How  free  and  light  he  must  feel  at 
being  liberated  from  the  shackles  of  his  old  connections,  and 
at  being  able  to  take  any  part  that  his  sense  of  his  own 
interests  or  of  the  public  exigencies  may  point  out !  And 
then  the  satisfactory  consciousness  of  being  by  far  the  most 
eminent  man  in  the  House  of  Commons,  to  see  and  feel  the 
respect  he  inspires  and  the  consideration  he  enjoys  !  It  is  a 
melancholy  proof  of  the  decadence  of  ability  and  eloquence  in 
that  House,  when  Peel  is  the  first,  and,  except  Stanley,  almost 
the  only  real  orator  in  it.  He  speaks  with  great  energy, 
great  dexterity — his  language  is  powerful  and  easy ;  he  rea- 
sons well,  hits  hard,  and  replies  with  remarkable  promptitude 
and  effect ;  but  he  is  at  an  immense  distance  below  the  great 
models  of  eloquence,  Pitt,  Fox,  and  Canning;  his  voice  is 
not  melodious,  and  it  is  a  little  monotonous;  his  action  is 
very  ungraceful,  his  person  and  manners  are  vulgar,  and  he 
has  certain  tricks  in  his  motions  which  exhibit  that  vulgarity 
in  a  manner  almost  offensive,  and  which  is  only  redeemed 
by  the  real  power  of  his  speeches.  His  great  merit  consists 
in  his  judgment,  tact,  and  discretion,  his  facility,  prompti- 
tude, thorough  knowledge  of  the  assembly  he  addresses, 
familiarity  with  the  details  of  every  sort  of  Parliamentary 
business,  and  the  great  command  he  has  over  himself. 
He  never  was  a  great  favorite  of  mine,  but  I  am  satisfied 
that  he  is  the  fittest  man  to  be  Minister,  and  I  therefore 
wish  to  see  him  return  to  power.  Stanley  told  me  yesterday 
how  very  glad  they  were  at  having  been  defeated  on  Baron 
Smith's  case,  and  that  they  were  thereby  relieved  from  a 
great  embarrassment.  Times  are  mightily  altered,  when 
such  defeats  and  such  scrapes  produce  no  effect  upon 
Government,  and  when  they  can  go  on  upon  two  majorities 
of  four  and  eight  and  one  defeat. 

February  25th. — There  has  been  a  meeting  at  Althorp's 
to-day,  numerously  attended,  in  which  he  talked  with  some 
effect,  as  it  is  said,  the  audience  having  gone  away  in  a 
humor  to  support  Government.  He  took  occasion,  on 
somebody  hinting  at  the  disunion  among  themselves,  to  say 
that  though  there  might  exist  differences  of  opinion  on  some 
minor  points,  he  believed  there  never  had  existed  a  Cabinet 


226  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

of  which  the  members  were  more  firmly  knit  together  by 
private  fliendship  and  political  concurrence. 

It  was  Methuen  who  harangued,  and  who  said  that  the 
meeting  was  very  unsatisfactory.  Althorp  began  by  saying 
that  unless  gentlemen  would  more  regularly  and  consistently 
support  the  Government  it  could  not  be  carried  on,  when 
Paul l  rejoined  that  the  Government  did  not  support  itself, 
and  that  they  seemed  divided.  Moreover,  that  when  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  himself  talked  with  so  much 
doubt  and  uncertainty  about  reducing  particular  taxes,  he 
must  not  be  surprised  if  everybody  tried  to  get  what  they 
could  for  themselves  in  the  general  scramble. 

There  are  letters  from  George  Villiers  to-day  (not  to  me, 
but  to  his  mother),  in  which  he  gives  a  deplorable  account  of 
Spain,  that  Carlos  has  a  large  party  in  the  north,  where  the 
Queen's  person  is  odious,  the  monks  have  persuaded  the 
people  that  she  is  atheistical  and  republican,  that  she  has 
not  force  enough  to  crush  the  rebellion,  and  what  she  has  is 
scattered  on  different  points,  without  being  able  to  make  any 
combined  or  vigorous  efforts,  that  she  has  no  money.  The 
Cortes  is  to  be  assembled,  but  they  (I  suppose  the  Ministers) 
have  rejected  all  good  advice  on  this  subject,  and  nobody  can 
anticipate  the  effect  that  will  be  produced  by  300  or  400 
individuals  meeting  in  a  legislative  capacity.  If  Miguel  had 
resolved  to  give  effectual  aid  to  Carlos,  and  dashed  into 
Spain,  he  might  certainty  have  placed  him  on  the  throne, 
and  then  secured  him  as  a  powerful  ally  to  himself  in  his 
own  contest.  Miguel's  own  case  he  (George  Villiers)  by  no 
means  considers  hopeless,  thinks  him  much  better  off  than 
Pedro  was  when  at  Oporto.  The  stories  of  the  Queen's2 
gallantries  are  true.  He  does  not  say  so  totidem  verbis, 
because  he  does  not  dare,  but  he  manages  to  convey  as 
much  in  answer  to  a  question  his  mother  asked  him.  He 
thinks  that  the  great  probability  is  that  universal  anarch  v 
will  convulse  that  country  with  civil  war  of  the  most  de- 
structive character,  and  that  the  provinces,  kingdoms,  and 
districts,  will  be  arrayed  against  each  other.  The  Carlists 
of  Spain  being  in  the  north,  and  those  of  France  in  the 
south,  it  is  very  likely  they  will  endeavor  to  make  common 

1  [Paul  Methuen,  Esq.,  M.  P.  for  Wiltshire.  It  was  to  him  that  O'Counell 
made  the  memorable  but  somewhat  profane  retort,  "  Paul,  Paul,  why  perse- 
cutest  thou  me  1 "] 

a  [Queen  Christina  the  Kegcnt  is  here  meant.  Queen  Isabella  II.  was  a 
young  child.] 


r.-,4.]  BETWEEN   THE   STOOLS.  227 

cause,  in  which  case  it  will  be  difficult  for  France  not  to 
interfere,  so  he  thinks  ;  so  do  not  I,  and  am  more  disposed 
to  believe  that  Louis  Philippe  is  too  prudent  to  run  his  head 
into  such  a  hornet's  nest,  and  that  he  will  content  himself 
with  keeping  matters  quiet  in  France,  without  meddling  with 
the  Spanish  disputes.  He  had  not  yet  received  any  letters 
from  Palmerston.1 

February  26th. — Home,  the  late  Attorney-General,  seems 
likely  to  fall  between  the  stools.  When  Brougham  proposed 
to  him  to  take  a  puisne  judgeship,  he  said  he  had  been  an 
equity  lawyer  all  his  life,  and  had  no  mind  to  enter  on  a 
course  of  common  law,  for  which  he  was  not  qualified,  and 
proposed  that  he  should  not  go  the  circuits,  and  be  Deputy- 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Lords.  Brougham  told  him  there 
would  be  no  difficulty,  and  then  told  Lord  Grey  he  had  settled 
it  with  Home,  but  did  not  tell  him  what  Home  required. 
The  general  movement  was  made,  and  when  Home  desired 
to  see  Lord  Grey  he  told  him  that  his  terms  could  not  be 
complied  with,  so  he  became  a  victim  to  the  trickery  and 
shuffling  of  the  Chancellor,  who  wanted  to  get  him  out,  and 
did  not  care  how.  I  hear  that  his  colleagues  are  quite  aware 
of  all  his  tricks  and  his  intrigues,  and  have  not  the  slightest 
confidence  in  him.  He  thinks  of  nothing  but  the  establish- 
ment of  political  power  on  the  the  basis  of  patronage,  and  ac- 
cordingly he  grasps  at  all  he  can.  All  the  commissions  of 
inquiry  which  are  set  on  foot  afford  him  the  means  of 
patronage,  but  I  doubt  all  will  not  do.  He  is  emasculated 
by  being  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  he  will  hardly  get  any- 
body to  do  his  buisiness  for  him  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

1  [Within  a  few  days  of  the  date  of  this  note  the  Ministry  of  March  let  was 
formed  in  France,  with  M.  Thiers  (for  the  first  time)  at  the  head  of  it.  The 
avowed  object  of  that  Minister  was  to  induce  the  King  to  interfere  more  active- 
ly in  Spain  in  conjunction  with  England,  "  Nous  entrainerons  le  Eoi "  was  a 
boast  he  was  heard  to  utter.  But  he  utterly  failed.  Mr.  Greville's  prediction 
turned  out  to  be  correct,  and  in  a  few  months  Thiers  was  again  out  of  office.] 


228  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

Spain— Russia  and  Turkey— Sir  R.  Peel's  Pictures— Peel  and  Stanley— Lord  Brougham's 
Judicial  Changes — Lord  Brougham's  Defense— Admission  of  Dissenters  to  the  Univer- 
sities— Lord  Denman's  Peerage — Growing  Ascendency  of  Peel— An  Apology  for  Lord 
Brougham— Personal  Reflections— Crime  in  Dorsetshire— Spain  and  Portugal— Pro- 
cession of  the  Trades1  Unions— Lady  Hertford's  Funeral— Petition  of  the  London 
University  for  a  Charter— Repeal  of  the  Union— Excitemeut  of  the  King— Brougham 
and  Eldon  at  the  Privy  Council— Duke  of  Wellington's  Aversion  to  the  Whigs— Lord 
Brougham  and  Lord  Wynford— Fete  at  Petworth — Lord  Brougham's  Conduct  on  the 
Pluralities  Bill— Crisis  in  the  Cabinet— Prince  Lieven  recalled— Stanley,  Graham,  and 
the  Duke  of  Richmond,  resign  on  the  Irish  Church  Bill— History  of  the  Crisis— Ward's 
Motion  defeated  by  moving  the  Previous  Question— Affairs  of  Portugal — Effects  of  the 
late  Change — Oxford 'Commemoration — Peel's  Declaration — Festival  in  Westminster 
Abbey — Don  Carlos  on  his  Wav  to  Spain— Stanley's  "Thimble-rig"  Speech — Resigna- 
tion of  Lord  Grey— Mr.  Greville's  Account  of  the  Causes  of  his  Retirement — The 
Government  reconstituted  by  Lord  Melbourne — Lord  Duncannon  Secretary  of  State. 

March  12th. — I  have  been  laid  up  with  the  gout  for 
the  greater  part  of  a  fortnight,  but  went  to  Newmarket  for 
two  days  to  get  well,  and  succeeded.  Weather  like  summer, 
nothing  particularly  new,  a  long  debate  on  the  Corn  Laws, 
which  being  called  an  open  question,  the  Ministers  voted 
different  ways — that  is,  all  the  Cabinet  voted  one  way,  but 
the  underlings  took  their  own  course.  Half  the  Ruralists 
are  furious  with  Government  for  their  indecision  and  way 
of  acting  on  this  question,  but  I  am  so  totally  ignorant  upon 
it  that  I  cannot  enter  into  their  indignation,  or  exactly 
understand  from  what  it  proceeds.  It  was  pretty  to  see 
Graham  and  Poulett  Thomson,  like  two  game-cocks  got 
loose  from  one  pen,  pecking  at  and  spurring  one  another. 
Everybody  agrees  that  the  debate  was  very  dull,  and  that  is 
all  they  do  agree  upon. 

George  Villiers  writes  to  his  family  from  Spain,  that 
nothing  can  be  worse  and  more  unpromising  than  the  state 
of  that  country.  Notwithstanding  his  Liberal  opinions  and 
desire  to  see  a  system  of  constitutional  freedom  established 
in  the  Peninsula,  he  is  obliged  to  confess  that  Spain  is  not 
fit  for  such  a  boon,  and  that  the  materials  do  not  exist  out  of 
which  such  a  social  edifice  can  be  constructed.  He  regards 
with  dismay  and  sorrow  the  tendency  toward  irremediable 
confusion  and  political  convulsions,  and  sees  no  daylight 
through  the  dark  prospect.  He  appears  to  regret  Zea,  to 
whose  removal  he  contributed,  and  finds  more  difficulties  in 
dealing  with  the  present  Ministers  than  he  had  with  him. 

March  ~L4:th. — There    is  a   fresh  d&mele  with    Russia    on 


1834.]  A   NEW   TREATY.  229 

account  of  a  new  treaty  concluded  by  Achmet  Pasha  at  St. 
Petersburg.  By  this  Russia  agrees  to  remit  six  millions  of 
the  ten  which  Turkey  owes  her,  and  to  give  up  the  Princi- 
palities, but  she  keeps  the  fortress  of  Silistria  and  the  military 
road,  which  gives  her  complete  command  over  them.  The 
Sultan,  "not  to  be  outdone  in  generosity,"  in  return  for  so 
much,  kindly  cedes  to  Russia  a  slip  of  sea-coast  on  the  Black 
Sea,  adjoining  another  portion  already  ceded  by  the  Treaty 
of  Adrianople  as  far  south  as  Poti.  This  territorial  ac- 
quisition is  not  considerable  in  itself,  but  it  embraces  the 
line  of  communication  with  Persia,  by  which  we  have  a  vast 
traffic,  and  which  Russia  will  be  able  at  any  time  to  inter- 
rupt. This  new  transaction,  so  quietly  and  plausibly  effected, 
has  thrown  our  Government  into  a  great  rage,  and  especially 
his  Majesty  King  William,  who  insisted  upon  a  dozen  ships 
being  sent  off  forthwith  to  the  Mediterranean.  Nothing 
vigorous,  however,  has  been  done,  and  Palmerston  has 
contented  himself  with  writing  to  Lord  Ponsonby,  desiring 
him  to  exhort  the  Sultan  not  to  ratify  this  treaty,  and  rather 
to  pay  (or  more  properly,  to  continue  to  owe)  the  whole  ten 
millions  than  accede  to  the  wily  proposal.  This  advice  will 
probably  seem  more  friendly  than  disinterested,  and  I  have 
not  the  slightest  idea  of  the  Sultan's  listening  to  it.  He  has, 
in  fact,  become  the  vassal  of  Russia,  and  his  lot  is  settled  in 
this  respect,  for  from  Russia  he  has  most  to  fear  and  most 
to  hope.  The  conduct  of  our  Government  in  this  question 
has  been  marked  by  nothing  but  negligence  and  indecision, 
vainly  blustering  and  threatening  at  one  moment  and  tamely 
submitting  and  acquiescing  at  another,  "  willing  to  wound  and 
yet  afraid  to  strike,"  treating  Russia  as  if  she  was  the  for- 
midable foe  of  Turkey,  and  allowing  her  so  to  act  as  to  make 
Turkey  think  her  an  ally  and  protectress,  and  finally  to  throw 
herself  into  Russia's  arms. 

I  went  yesterday  morning  to  Peel's  house,  to  see  his 
pictures;  since  we  met  at  Buckenham  we  have  got  rathei 
intimate.  The  fact  is  that,  though  I  have  never  been  a  great 
admirer  of  his  character,  and  probably  he  is  not  improved  in 
high-mindedness,  I  am  so  sensible  of  his  capacity,  and  of  the 
need  in  which  we  stand  of  him,  that  I  wish  to  see  him  again 
in  power,  and  he  is  a  very  agreeable  man  into  the  bargain. 
His  collection  is  excellent,  and  does  honor  to  his  taste. 
We  talked  of  various  matters,  but  the  thing  that  struck  me 
most  was  what  he  said  had  passed  between  him  and  Stanley 


230  EEIGX    OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

the  night  before  indicative  of  such  good  feeling  between 
them.  It  was  about  the  job  of  Lord  Plunket's  with  regard 
to  the  Deanery  of  Down  (concerning  which  they  say  there  is 
a  very  good  case ;  not  that  it  will  do,  be  it  ever  so  good,  for 
Plunket  has  a  bad  name,  and  public  opinion  will  not  pause 
or  retract  in  any  concern  of  his).  He  and  Stanley  met  at 
Madame  de  Lieven's  ball,  and  Peel  said  to  him,  "  Why  did 
you  let  that  appointment  take  place?"  Stanley  replied, 
"  The  fact  is,  I  could  not  give  the  true  and  only  excuse  for 
Plunket,  viz.,  that  he  had  signed  the  report,  but  had  never 
read  it."  Peel  said,  "  You  had  better  give  him  some  other 
deanery  and  cancel  this  appointment."  They  talked  for  a 
long  time,  but  this  tone  and  this  advice  exhibit  a  state  of 
sentiment  by  no  means  incompatible  with  a  future  union, 
when  matters  are  ripe  for  it.  1  found  Peel  full  of  curiosity 
to  know  for  what  purpose  Brougham  and  Denman  had  been 
hunting  each  other  about  the  County  of  Beds.  The  Chief- 
Justice  was  on  the  circuit  at  Bedford,  and  the  Chancellor 
sent  to  him  by  special  messenger  to  appoint  a  meeting. 
The  Chancellor  went  to  Ampthill,  and  then  to  Bedford. 
The  Chief-Justice  had  left  Bedford  in  the  morning,  and 
went  toward  London.  Brougham  had  left  his  carraige  at 
Ampthill  and  hired  a  job  one,  that  he  might  enter  Bedford 
incognito.  Somewhere  between  Barnet  and  St.  Albans  they 
met,  and  returned  to  town  together  in  the  Chancellor's  job 
coach.  They  went  to  Lord  Grey's,  and  the  next  day  Den- 
man returned  to  the  circuit,  which  he  had  left  without  notice 
to  his  brother  judge  or  to  anybody — a  mystery. 

March  16th. — Heard  last  night  the  explanation  of  the 
above.  Brougham  found  that  Williams  would  not  do  in  the 
Exchequer,  so  he  shuffled  up  the  judges  and  redealt  them. 
Williams  was  shoved  up  to  the  Common  Pleas,  Bosanquet 
sent  to  the  King's  Bench,  and  James  Parke  put  into  the 
Exchequer.  I  thought  this  was  odd,  because  the  Exchequer 
is  an  inferior  court ;  but  I  was  told  that  Parke  likes  to  be  with 
Lord  Lyndhurst,  who  has  now  made  the  Court  of  Exchequer 
of  primary  importance  :  48,000  writs  were  issued  from  the 
Exchequer  last  year,  and  only  39,000  from  the  King's  Bench. 
I  forget  what  the  proportions  used  to  be,  but  enormously  the 
other  way.  It  is  quite  ludicrous  to  talk  to  any  lawyer  about 
the  Chancellor;  the  ridicule  and  aversion  he  has  excited  are 
universal.  They  think  he  has  degraded  the  profession,  and 
his  tricks  are  so  palpable,  numerous,  and  mean,  that  political 


1834.]  DEBATE  ON   THE   TURKISH   QUESTION.  231 

partiality  can  neither  screen  nor  defend  them.  As  to  the 
separation  of  the  judicial  from  the  ministerial  du  ties  of  his 
office,  it  is  in  great  measure  accomplished  without  any  legisla- 
tive act,  for  nobody  ever  thinks  of  bringing  an  original  cause 
into  his  Court.  He  has  nothing  to  hear  but  appeals,  which 
must  come  before  him,  and  lunacy  and  other  matters,  over 
which  he  has  sole  jurisdiction. 

March  19th. — The  night  before  last  Shiel  brought  on  a 
debate  on  the  Turkish  question,  when  Palmerston  made  a 
Avretched  speech,  and  Peel  attacked  him  very  smartly,  as  it  is 
his  delight  to  do,  for  he  dislikes  Palmerston.  Talleyrand  said 
to  me  last  night,  "  Palmerston  a  tres-bien  parle"."  I  told  him 
everybody  thought  it  pitiable.  He  certainly  took  care  to  flatter 
France  and  not  to  offend  Russia.  In  the  Lords  Brougham 
took  occasion,  in  replying  to  some  question  of  Ellenborough's, 
to  defend  himself  from  the  charges  which  have  been  brought 
against  him  of  negligence  and  incapacity  in  his  judicial  office, 
and  he  made  out  a  good  case  for  himself  as  far  as  industry 
and  dispatch  are  concerned.  Nobody  ever  denied  him  the 
merit  of  the  former  quality.  The  virulent  attacks  of  the  Tory 
press  (that  is,  of  the  Morning  Post,  by  Praed,  for  the  Stand- 
ard rather  defends  him)  have  overshot  their  mark,  and,  though 
the  general  opinion  of  the  Bar  seems  to  condemn  him  as  a  bad 
Chancellor,  he  is  probably  not  near  so  bad  as  they  endeavor 
to  make  him  out.  A  mind  so  vigorous  as  his  will  master  diffi- 
culties in  a  short  time  at  which  an  inferior  capacity  would  in 
vain  hammer  away  for  years;  but  his  life,  habits,  and  turn  of 
mind  seem  all  incompatible  with  profound  law-learning.  He 
said  to  Sefton,  after  he  had  spoken:  "They  had  better  leave 
me  alone.  I  was  afraid  that  when  Londonderry  was  gone 
nobody  would  attack  me,  and  I  did  not  think  Ellenborough 
would  have  been  damned  fool  enough."  They  certainly  can't 
get  the  best  of  him  at  the  gab. 

George  Villiers  continues  to  give  a  deplorable  account  of 
Spanish  affairs — of  the  imbecility  of  the  Government,  and  of 
the  conduct  of  the  Queen,  about  whom  the  stories  of  gallantry 
are  quite  true,  and  he  says  it  has  done  irreparable  injury  to 
her  cause.  An  embassy  has  arrived  from  Pedro,  with  a  prop- 
osition that  they  should  concert  a  combined  operation  for 
crushing  the  Miguelites  and  the  Carlists  both,  beginning  with 
the  former.  George  Villiers  seems  to  think  it  feasible,  but 
doubts  if  the  Spanish  Government  has  sufficient  energy  and 
courage  to  undertake  such  an  operation. 


232  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

March   25th. — Dined   with    Peel    on  Saturday  ;  a  great 
dinner  with  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  and  the   Embassadors. 
The  day  before,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  Lord  Grey  presented 
a  petition  from  certain  members  of  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge,   praying   for   the   admission    of    Dissenters    to   take 
degrees,  which  he  introduced  with  a  very  good  speech.     The 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  who,  as  Chancellor  of  the  University, 
ought  properly  to  have  said  whatever  there  was  to  say,  was 
not  there  (in  which  Silly  Billy  did  a  wise  thing),  so  the  Duke 
of  Wellington  rose  to  speak  in  his  stead.     It  may  have  been 
that  considering  himself  to  stand  in  the  Duke  of  Gloucester's 
shoes,  he  could  nof  make  too  foolish  a  speech,  and  accordingly 
he  delivered  one  of  those  harangues  which  make  men  shrug 
their  shoulders  with  pity  or  astonishment.     It  is  always  'a 
matter  of  great  regret  to  me  when  he  exposes  himself  in  this 
manner.     After  dinner  at  Peel's  I  talked  to  Lyndhurst  about 
it,  who  said :  "  Unlucky  thing  that  Chancellorship  of  Oxford  ; 
it  will  make  him  commit  himself  in  a  very  inconvenient  man- 
ner.    The  Duke  is  so  very  obstinate ;  if  he  thought  that  it 
was  possible  to  act  any  longer  upon  those  High  Church  prin- 
ciples it  would  be  all  very  well,  but  you  have  transferred 
power  to  a  class  of  a  lower  description,  and  particularly  to 
the  great  body  of  Dissenters,  and  it  is  obvious  that  those 
principles  are  now  out  of  date;  the  question  is,  under  the 
circumstances,  What  is  best  to  be  done  ?  "    Lord  Ellenborough 
entirely  threw  the  Duke  over,  and  made  a  very  good  speech, 
agreeing  to  the  prayer  of  the  petitioners,  with  the  reserva- 
tion only  of  certain  securities  which  Lord  Grey  himself  ap- 
proves of.     I  dined  with  him  the  day  following,  and  he  said 
so,  adding  at  the  same  time,  "  Though  I  dare  say  they  will 
consider  them  as  an  insult,  and  make  great  complaints  at  their 
imposition.     However,  I  don't  care  for  that,  and  if  they  don't 
choose  to  accept  what  is  offered  them  on  such  conditions,  they 
may  go  without  it."     There  are  two  things  which  strike  one 
(at  least  strike  me)  in  the  discussion — that  of  the  two  prin- 
cipal actors  the  Duke  of  Wellington  is  incomparably  a  man 
of  a  more  vigorous  understanding,  and  of  greater  firmness, 
energy,  and  decision,  than  Lord  Grey,  but  that  Lord  Grey 
appears  like  an  accomplished  orator,  and  prudent,  sagacious, 
liberal  statesman,  while  the  other  exhibits  bigoted,  narrow- 
minded  views,  ignorance  almost  discreditable,  and   nothing 
but  a  blind  zeal  in  deference  to  the  obstinate  prejudices  of 
the    academical  body  with  which  he  has  connected  himself. 


1?::4.]  DESMAN'S  PEERAGE.  233 

Who  would  imagine  (who  heard  the  two  men  and  knew  noth- 
ing more  of  them)  that  the  latter  is  in  reality  immensely 
superior  to  the  former  in  mind  and  understanding  ?  Nor 
must  it  be  supposed  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  if  he  came 
into  power,  would  act  in  a  manner  corresponding  -with  his 
declared  opinions.  Very  far  from  it ;  he  would  do  just  as  he 
did  with  regard  to  the  Test  Act  and  the  Catholic  question, 
and  if  he  was  at  the  head  of  the  Government,  he  would  cal- 
culate what  sort  and  amount  of  concession  it  was  necessary  to 
make,  and  would  make  it,  without  caring  a  farthing  about  the 
University  of  Oxford  or  his  own  former  speeches.  The  Times 
in  its  remarks  on  his  speech  was  very  insolent,  but  excessively 
droll. 

Denman's  peerage  is  much  abused ;  it  is  entirely  the  Chan- 
cellor's doing.  Denman  has  no  fortune  and  a  feeble  son  to 
succeed  him,  and  it  was  hoped  that  the  practice  of  making  all 
the  Chief-Justices  Peers  would  have  been  discontinued  in  his 
person.  Brougham  wrote  to  Lyndhurst,  ostensibly  to  inform 
him  of  this  event,  but  really  to  apologize  for  the  misstatements 
he  had  made  in  his  speech  about  the  business  he  (Lyndhurst) 
had  done  in  the  House  of  Lords  and  in  the  Court  of  Chancery. 
Lyndhurst  said  (to  me),  "  What  nonsense  it  is  !  He  has  done 
all  he  could  do,  and  so  did  his  predecessors  before  him ;  he 
has  sat  as  long  as  he  could,  and  if  he  has  not  got  through  as 
much  business  it  is  because  counsel  have  made  longer  speeches, 
for  I  am  told  his  practice  is  never  to  interrupt  them,  to  take 
away  his  papers,  and  come  down  a  few  days  after  and  deliver 
a  written  judgment." 

On  Sunday  at  dinner  at  Lord  Grey's  I  sat  next  to  Charles 
Grey,  who  talked  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  said  that 
there  could  be  no  question  of  Peel's  superiority  over  every- 
body there,  that  Stanley  had  not  done  so  well  this  session, 
had  displayed  so  much  want  of  judgment  now,  as  well  as 
formerly,  that  he  was  evidently  not  fit  to  be  leader.  He 
owned  that  Peel's  conduct  was  very  fair  as  well  as  prudent, 
and  said  that  if  his  father  was  to  resign,  he  himself,  and  he 
believed  many  others,  would  be  willing  to  support  a  Govern- 
ment headed  by  Peel.  It  is  remarkable  how  men's  minds  are 
gradually  turning  to  Peel.  I  was  amused  yesterday  with 
Poulett  Thomson,  who  told  me  that  Peel  had  been  very  cour- 
teous to  him,  and  that  they  had  some  important  points  of 
coincidence  of  opinion;  that  Peel  did  not  like  Graham, 
Palmerston,  or  Grant,  but  to  the  rest  of  the  Government  ho 


234  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [Cii.\p.  XXIII. 

was  remarkably  civil.  I  think  he  reckons  without  his  host 
if  he  calculates  upon  Peel's  politeness  extending  to  the  offer 
of  a  place  to  our  Vice-President  in  the  event  of  his  coming  in. 

March  29th. — At  the  beginning  of  the  week  there  was  a 
discussion  in  the  House  of  Commons  which  lasted  for  three 
mornings  on  the  Cambridge  petition.  Spring  Rice,  O'Connell, 
Stanley,  and  Palmerston,  spoke  for  it ;  Goulburn,  Inglis,  and 
Peel,  against  it.  Old  Cobbett  made  as  mischievous  a  speech 
as  he  could  to  blow  the  coals  between  the  parties.  Peel  spoke 
last,  and  as  usual  very  well ;  but  several  people  expected  he 
would  have  supported  it,  and  have  abstained  (from  prudential 
motives)  from  saying  any  thing  likely  to  offend  the  Dissenters. 
I  expected  no  such  thing ;  he  was  not  violent,  and  addressed 
his  argument  to  the  weak  parts  of  his  adversaries'  speeches 
rather  than  against  the  general  principles  of  toleration  ;  arid 
I  still  think  that  when  the  great  question  of  concessions  to  the 
Dissenters  comes  to  be  argued  he  will  not  be  found  in  the 
ranks  of  their  virulent  and  uncompromising  opponents.  It 
would  have  been  an  extraordinary  thing  indeed  if  he  had  all 
of  a  sudden  stood  forth  in  the  character  of  an  anti-Churchman, 
for  such  he  especially  would  have  been  considered  if  he  had 
united  himself  with  the  petitioners,  and  he  would  have  dis- 
gusted and  alienated  all  the  High  Churchman  and  High  Tories 
to  a  degree  which  must  have  made  a  fresh  and  irreconcilable 
breach  between  them.  This  would  not  have  been  judicious 
in  his  position,  and  I  am  satisfied  that  he  took  the  most  pru- 
dent course.  I  am  the  more  satisfied  of  it  from  the  circum- 
stance that  his  speech  by  no  means  gave  unalloyed  pleasure 
to  the  Standard,  which  is  the  organ  of  the  High  Church  party. 
I  feel  it  a  strange  thing  to  find  myself  the  advocate  and  ad- 
mirer of  Peel ;  but  there  is  such  a  dearth  of  talent,  his  supe- 
riority is  so  obvious,  and  it  is  so  very  desirable  that  something 
like  strength  should  be  infused  into  the  Government,  that  I 
am  compelled  to  overlook  his  faults  without  being  the  least 
blind  to  them.  I  ascribe  to  him  no  more  elevation  of  char- 
acter than  I  did  before  ;  but  we  must  take  what  we  can  get 
and  make  use  of  the  existing  materials,  and  for  this  reason  1 
watch  with  anxiety  his  conduct,  because  I  am  persuaded  that 
he  is  under  present  circumstances  our  best  and  only  refuge. 

The  Vice-Chancellor l  called  on  me  the  other  day,  and  talk- 
ing over  the  business  that  had  been  done  by  Brougham,  and 
the  recent  discussion  about  it,  he  said  that  he  had  taken  the 
1  [Sir  Lancelot  Shad-well,  Vice-Chancellor  of  England.] 


I*!t.]  A   MELANCHOLY   ANNIVERSARY.  235 

trouble  to  examine  the  returns  of  hearings,  decrees,  and  orders, 
and  he  found  that  there  was  scarcely  a  shade  of  difference  be- 
tween what  had  been  done  severally  by  Eldon,  Lyndhurst,  and 
Brougham,  in  equal  spaces  of  time.  (Eldon  and  Lyndhurst 
had  the  Bankruptcy  business  besides.)  This  is  a  clear  case  for 
the  Chancellor,  and  it  is  only  fair  that  it  should  be  known. 
His  friends  think  him  much  altered  in  spirits  and  appearance  ; 
he  has  never  shaken  off  his  unhappiness  at  his  brother's  death, 
to  whom  he  seems  to  have  been  tenderly  attached.  It  is  only 
justice  to  acknowledge  his  virtues  in  private  life,  which  are 
unquestionably  conspicuous.  I  am  conscious  of  having  often 
spoken  of  him  with  asperity,  and  it  is  some  satisfaction  to  my 
conscience  to  do  him  this  justice.  When  the  greatest  (I  will 
not  say  the  best)  men  are  often  influenced  by  pique  or  passion, 
by  a  hundred  petty  feelings  which  their  philosophy  cannot 
silence  or  their  temperament  obeys,  it  is  no  wonder  that  we 
poor  wretches  who  are  cast  in  less  perfect  moulds  should  be 
still  more  liable  to  these  pernicious  influences  ;  and  it  is  only 
by  keeping  an  habitual  watch  over  our  own  minds  and  thoughts, 
and  steadily  resolving  never  to  be  turned  from  considerations 
of  justice  and  truth,  that  we  can  hope  to  walk  through  life 
with  integrity  and  impartiality.  I  believe  what  I  have  said 
of  Brougham  to  be  correct  in  the  main — that  he  is  false,  trick- 
ing, ambitious,  and  unprincipled,  and  as  such  I  will  show  him 
up  when  I  can — but  though  I  do  not  like  him  and  he  has  of- 
fended me — that  is,  has  wounded  my  vanity  (the  greatest  of 
all  offenses) — I  only  feel  it  the  more  necessary  on  that  account 
to  be  on  my  guard  against  my  own  impressions  and  prejudices, 
and  to  take  every  opportunity  of  exhibiting  the  favorable  side 
of  the  picture,  and  render  justice  to  the  talents  and  virtues 
which  cannot  be  denied  him. 

April  3d. — Yesterday  I  was  forty  years  old,  an  anniversary 
much  too  melancholy  to  think  off;  and  when  I  reflect  how  in- 
tolerably these  forty  years  have  been  wasted,  how  unprofit- 
ably  spent,  how  little  store  laid  up  for  the  future,  how  few 
the  pleasurable  recollections  of  the  past,  a  feeling  of  pain  and 
humiliation  comes  across  me  that  makes  my  cheeks  tingle  and 
burn  as  I  write.  It  is  very  seldom  that  I  indulge  in  moraliz- 
ing in  this  Journal  of  mine  ;  if  anybody  ever  reads  it,  what 
will  they  care  for  my  feelings  and  regrets  ?  It  is  no  reason, 
they  will  think,  that  because  I  have  wasted  my  time  they 
should  waste  theirs  in  reading  the  record  of  follies  which  are 
nothing  more  than  the  great  mass  of  the  world  are  every  day 


2C6  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

committing  ;  idleness,  vanity,  and  selfishness,  are  our  besetting 
sins,  and  we  are  perpetually  whirled  about  by  one  or  other  of 
them.  It  is  certainly  more  amusing,  both  to  other  people  and 
to  myself  (when  I  look  back  at  what  I  have  written),  to  read 
the  anecdotes  and  events  of  the  day  than  all  this  moral  stuff 
(by  which  I  mean  stuff  as  applied  to  me,  not  as  being  despica- 
ble in  itself),  but  every  now  and  then,  the  fancy  takes  me,  and 
I  think  I  find  relief  by  giving  vent  on  paper  to  that  which  I 
cannot  say  to  anybody.  "  Cela  fait  partie  de  cette  doctrine 
interieure  qu'il  ne  faut  jamais  communiquer"  (Stendhal). 
Jam  satis  est,  and  I  will  go  to  other  things — the  foreign  or 
domestic  scraps  I  have  picked  up. 

Parliament  being  en  reldche,  there  are  few  people  in  town. 
William  Ponsonby,  whom  I  met  the  other  evening,  told  me  he 
had  just  returned  from  the  assizes  at  Dorchester,  where  some 
men  had  been  convicted  of  illegal  association.  On  the  event 
of  this  trial,  he  said,  the  lower  and  laboring  classes  had  their 
eyes  fixed,  and  the  conviction  was  therefore  of  great  conse- 
quence ;  any  relaxation  of  the  sentence  would  have  been  im- 
possible under  the  circumstances,  and  though  a  great  disposi- 
tion was  evinced,  partly  by  the  press,  by  petitions,  and  by 
some  speeches  in  Parliament,  to  get  them  left  off  more  easily, 
Melbourne  very  wisely  did  not  wait  for  more  manifestations, 
but  packed  them  off,  and  they  are  gone.  William  Ponsonby 
told  me  that  the  demoralization  in  that  part  of  the  country  is 
very  great — the  distress  not  severe,  no  political  disaffection, 
but  a  recklessness,  a  moral  obtuseness,  exceedingly  disgust- 
ing. There  was  a  certain  trial,  or  rather  case  (for  the  grand- 
jury  could  not  find  a  bill),  in  which  a  woman  had  murdered  a 
child,  got  by  her  son  out  of  a  girl  who  lodged  in  her  cottage. 
The  only  evidence  by  which  she  could  have  been  convicted 
would  have  been  that  of  the  son  himself,  and  he  refused  to 
speak.  The  crime  went  unpunished ;  but  I  mention  this  to 
introduce  what  grew  out  of  it.  One  of  the  lawyers  said  that 
in  the  course  of  the  investigations  which  this  case  had  occa- 
sioned it  had  been  discovered  (though  not  in  a  way  which  ad- 
mitted of  any  proofs  being  adduced  and  any  measures  adopted 
upon  it)  that  there  was  a  woman  whose  trade  was  to  get  rid 
of  bastard  children,  either  by  procuring  abortions  or  destroy- 
ing them  when  born,  and  that  she  had  a  regular  price  for 
either  operation.1  I  don't  suppose  that  the  average  state  of 


1  [The  same  t 
Charlotte  Winsor 


Mag  -was  proved  more  than  thirty  years  later,  on  the  trial  of 
•,  who  eventually  escaped  the  fate  fine  deserved  on  the  ground 


1334.]  SEYMOUR  BATHURST'S  SUDDEN  DEATH.  237 

morals  is  much  worse  in  one  county  than  in  another;  but  it  is 
very  remarkable  that  while  education  has  been  more  widely 
diffused  than  heretofore,  and  there  is  a  strong  Puritanical  spir- 
it at  work  and  vast  talk  about  religious  observances,  there 
should  be  such  a  brutish  manifestation  of  the  moral  condition 
of  the  lower  classes,  and  that  they  should  be  apparently  so 
little  humanized  and  reclaimed  by  either  education  or  religion. 
In  this  country  all  is  contrast — contrast  between  wealth  the 
most  enormous  and  poverty  the  most  wretched,  between  an 
excess  of  sanctity  and  an  atrocity  of  crime. 

George  Villiers  and  Howard  write  equally  bad  accounts 
from  their  respective  Courts,  neither  seeing  any  hope  of  the 
termination  of  the  Peninsular  contests,  and  each  of  them  alike 
disgusted  with  the  men  they  have  to  deal  with.  Howard 
says  that  we  could  put  an  end  to  the  Portuguese  affair  when- 
ever we  chose,  and  that  they  would  submit  to  British  power 
without  thinking  it  a  degradation  ;  that  Miguel  is.not  popular 
in  Portugal,  but  that  the  priests  have  made  a  crusade  against 
Pedro  and  Liberal  principles,  and  that  they  drive  the  peas- 
antry into  the  Miguelite  ranks  by  the  terrors  of  excommuni- 
cation ;  that  the  only  reason  why  Pedro's  military  operations 
are  successful  is  that  he  has  got  an  English  corps,  against 
which  the  Portuguese  will  not  fight. 

April  2lst. — At  Buckenham  and  Newmarket  for  the  last 
fortnight,  and  all  things  forgotten  but  racing.  Seymour 
Bathurst's  sudden  death  called  me  up  to  town  on  Tuesday 
night,  to  go  to  Court  on  Wednesday.  Then  I  saw  the  Duke 
of  Wellington  march  up  at  the  head  of  the  Doctors  to  present 
the  Oxford  petition,  attired  in  his  academical  robes ;  and  as  1 
looked  at  him  thus  bedight,  and  then  turned  my  eyes  to  his 
portraits  in  the  pictures  of  his  battles  which  adorn  the  walls, 
I  thought  how  many  and  various  were  the  parts  he  had  played. 
He  made  a  great  boggling  of  reading  his  petition,  for  it  was 
on  a  long  and  broad  parchment,  and  he  required  both  hands  to 
hold  it  and  one  to  hold  his  glasses.  This  is  the  day  for  the 
procession  of  the  Trade  Unions,  and  all  London  is  alive  with 
troops,  artillery,  and  police.  I  don't  suppose  any  thing  will 
happen,  and  so  much  has  the  general  alarm  of  these  Unions 
subsided  that  there  is  very  little  apprehension,  though  some 
curiosity  to  see  how  it  goes  off. 

of  somo  legal  technicality  which  was  taken  up  to  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
though  it  was  decided  against  the  prisoner,  the  Government  refused,  alter  u 
considerable  lapse  of  time,  to  have  her  executed.] 


238  REIGX   0?   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

April  23d. — Nothing  could  go  off  more  quietly  than  the 
procession  on  Monday.  There  were  about  25,000  men,  most- 
ly well  dressed,  no  noise  or  tumult,  a  vast  crowd.  It  was  a 
failure  altogether;  Melbourne's  answer  was  good.  They  say 
250,000  men  are  enrolled  in  the  Unions,  and  the  slang  name 
for  those  who  won't  belong  to  them  is  "  dungs  ;  "  the  intimi- 
dation used  is  great.  There  was  quite  as  great  a  crowd  as- 
sembled yesterday  to  see  old  Lady  Hertford's  funeral  go  by. 
The  King  sent  all  the  royal  carriages,  and  every  other  car- 
riage in  London  was  there,  I  believe — a  pompous  piece  of  folly, 
and  the  King's  compliment  rather  a  queer  one,  as  the  only 
ground  on  which  she  could  claim  such  an  honor  was  that  of 
having  been  George  IV.'s  mistress.  Brougham  made  one  of 
his  exhibitions  in  the  House  of  Lords  the  other  night  about 
the  Cambridge  petition,  quizzing  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  with 
mock  gravity.  It  was  very  droll  and  very  witty,  I  fancy,  but 
very  unbeceming  his  station.  Last  night  O'Connell  spoke 
for  five  hours  on  the  repeal  of  the  Union. 

April  25th. — Yesterday  the  Privy  Council  met  to  hear  the 
London  University  petition,  praying  for  a  charter,  and  the 
counter-petitions  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  and  the  medical 
bodies.  The  assemblage  was  rather  curious,  considering  the 
relative  political  position  of  some  of  the  parties.  All  the 
Cabinet  Ministers  were  summoned  ;  Lords  Grey  and  Holland 
were  there,  the  Chancellor,  Denman,  Lyndhurst,  Eldon,  the 
two  Archbishops,  and  the  Bishop  of  London.  Old  Eldon  got 
a  fall  as  he  came  into  the  house  and  hurt  his  head.  Brougham 
and  the  rest  were  full  of  civilities  and  tenderness,  but  he 
said  "  it  was  of  no  consequence,  for  the  brains  had  been 
knocked  out  long  ago."  Wetherell  made  an  amusing  speech, 
and  did  not  conclude.  It  is  seldom  that  the  sounds  of  merri- 
ment are  heard  within  those  walls,  but  he  made  the  Lords 
laugh  and  the  gallery  too.  There  were  Allen  of  Holland 
House  and  Phillpotts  sitting  cheek  by  JOAV!  to  hear  the  dis- 
cussion. 

May  lltf/t. — More  thau  three  weeks,  and  rebus  Newmar- 
kctianis  versatus,  I  have  written  nothing.  The  debate  on  the 
repeal  of  the  Union  was  more  remarkable  for  the  length  than 
the  excellence  of  the  speeches,  except  Spring  Rice's,  which 
was  both  long  and  good,  and  Peel's,  the  latter  supereminent- 
ly so.  O'Connell  spoke  for  five  hours  and  a  quarter,  and 
Rice  for  six  hours ;  each  occupied  a  night,  after  the  manner 
of  American  orators.  The  minority  was  much  smaller  than 


1S34.]  STATE   OF  THE  KING'S   MIND.  239 

was  expected.  Since  that  the  only  question  of  consequence 
in  the  House  of  Commons  has  been  the  Pension  List,  on 
which  Government  got  a  larger  majority  than  they  had  hoped 
for,  and  such  a  one  as  to  set  the  matter  at  rest  for  some 
time.  Peel  again  spoke  very  well,  and  old  Byng  made  a  very 
independent,  gentlemanlike  speech.  Independence  nowa- 
days relates  more  to  constituents  than  to  the  governing  power. 
Nobody  is  suspected  of  being  dependent  on  the  Crown  or  the 
Minister,  and  the  question  is  if  a  man  be  independent  of  the 
popular  cry  or  of  his  own  constituency. 

The  King  has  been  exhibiting  some  symptoms  of  a  dis- 
ordered mind,  not,  however,  amounting  to  any  thing  like 
actual  derangement,  only  morbid  irritability  and  activity — 
reviewing  the  Guards  and  blowing  up  people  at  Court.  He 
made  the  Guards,  both  horse  and  foot,  perform  their  evolu- 
tions before  him;  he  examined  their  barracks,  clothes,  arms, 
and  accoutrements,  and  had  a  musket  brought  to  him,  that  he 
might  show  them  the  way  to  use  it  in  some  new  sort  of  exer- 
cise he  wanted  to  introduce;  in  short,  he  gave  a  great  deal  of 
trouble  and  made  a  fool  of  himself.  He  was  very  angry  with 
Lord  de  Saumarez  for  not  attending  Keats's  funeral,  and  still 
more  angry  because  he  would  begin  explaining  and  apologiz- 
ing, first  at  the  levee  and  then  at  the  drawing-room;  and  he 
reprehended  him  very  sharply  at  both  places.  An  explanation 
afterward  took  place  through  Lord  Camden,  to  whom  he  said 
that  he  was  angry  because  De  Saumarez  would  prate  at  the 
levee,  when  he  told  him  that  it  was  not  a  proper  place  for 
discussing  the  subject. 

The  debate  at  the  Council  Board  terminated  after  two 
more  days'  speaking.  It  was  tiresome  on  the  whole.  Brough- 
am is  a  bad  presiding  judge,  for  he  will  talk  so  much  to  the 
counsel,  and  being  very  anxious  to  abbreviate  the  business, 
he  ought  to  have  avoided  saying  pungent  things,  which  elicited 
rejoinders  and  excited  heat.  The  extreme  gravity  and  patient 
attention  of  old  Eldon  struck  me  forcibly  as  contrasted  with 
the  air  of  ennui,  the  frequent  and  audible  yawns,  and  the  flip- 
pant and  sarcastic  interruptions  of  the  Chancellor.  Wetherell 
made  a  very  able  speech,  which  he  afterward  published.  The 
most  striking  incident  occurred  in  an  answer  of  Bickersteth's 
to  one  of  the  Chancellor's  interruptions.  He  said,  talking  of 
degrees,  "  Pray,  Mr.  Bickersteth,  what  is  to  prevent  the  Lon- 
don University  granting  degrees  now  ?  "  to  which  he  replied, 
"The  universal  scorn  and  contempt  of  mankind."  Brougham 


240  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

said  no  more ;  the  effect  was  really  fine.  There  was  a  little 
debate  upon  Portugal  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  Friday, 
in  which  Palmerston  got  roughly  handled  by  Baring.  A  re- 
port was  believed  that  Don  Carlos  had  sailed  for  England,  and 
that  an  agreement  had  been  concluded  between  Miguel  and 
Pedro,  but  it  turned  out  to  be  false.  Nobody,  however, 
doubts  that  the  quadruple  alliance  will  settle  the  Portuguese 
business,  if  not  the  Spanish. 

May  12th. — There  was  a  report  yesterday  that  Palmerston 
was  out  and  Durham  in  his  place.  The  latter  was  under  the 
gallery  when  Palmerston  made  that  woful  exhibition  the  other 
night,  and  must  have  been  well  satisfied.  I  met  Peel  at  din- 
ner yesterday,  and  after  it  he  talked  to  me  of  this  report, 
which  he  concluded  was  not  true ;  but  he  said  that  Palmerston 
had  seemed  bereft  of  his  senses,  and  that  in  his  speech  he  had 
attempted  a  new  line  quite  unusual  with  him — that  of  humor 
— and  any  thing  so  miserable  he  had  never  heard.  He  then 
talked  of  Stanley;  expressed  his  indignation  at  hearing 
O'Connell  bepraised  by  the  men  he  is  always  vilifying,  espe- 
cially by  Stanley  himself,  of  whom  he  had  spoken  in  the  early 
part  of  the  same  night  in  such  terms  as  these:  "  The  honorable 
gentleman,  with  his  usual  disregard  of  veracity,  .  .  ."  and 
again:  "  He  attacked  him,  but  took  care  how  he  attacked 
others,  who  he  knew  were  not  restrained  by  obligations  such 
as  he  was  under  to  bear  with  his  language ;  "  in  other  words, 
calling  him  a  liar  and  a  coward;  and  after  this  Stanley  con- 
descended to  flatter  him  and  applaud  his  speech.  He  said 
that  he  had  expected  better  things  of  Stanley,  and  was  really 
distressed  to  hear  it. 

I  dined  with  the  Duke  of  Wellington  on  Saturday. 
Arbuthnot  was  there,  and  he  said  the  Duke  is  in  a  state  of 
unutterable  disgust  with  the  present  Government  and  their 
proceedings,  particularly  with  their  foreign  policy,  which  he 
fancies  they  shape  in  systematic  and  willful  opposition  to  his 
own.  This,  of  course,  is  merely  his  imagination,  and  rather 
a  preposterous  notion.  He  says  the  Duke  does  not  think 
well  of  the  state  of  the  country,  but  that  he  grasps  with 
eagerness  at  any  symptoms  of  returning  or  increasing  pros- 
perity, and  (what  is  rather  inconsistent  with  his  bad  opinion 
of  affairs)  he  is  always  telling  the  foreigners  (i.  e.,  the  Em- 
bassadors)  who  talk  to  him,  that  they  will  fall  into  a  great 
error  if  they  think  the  power  or  resources  of  England  in  any 
way  impaired.  His  antipathy  to  the  Whigs  is,  however,  in- 


1834.]  A  VERY  ABSURD   BILL.  241 

vincible,  and  of  very  ancient  date,  as  this  proves.  Arbuth- 
not  said  that  he  was  looking  over  a  box  of  papers  the  other 
day,  and  hit  upon  the  copy  of  a  letter  he  had  written  to 
Lord  Liverpool,  by  desire  of  some  of  his  principal  colleagues, 
to  dissuade  him  from  quitting  -office,  which  he  thought  of 
doing  at  the  time  of  the  first  Lady  Liverpool's  death.  With 
it  there  was  a  scrap  on  which  was  written,  "Taken  down 
from  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  own  lips  ; "  and  this  was  an 
argument  that,  in  the  event  of  his  refusing,  he  (the  Duke) 
should  think  himself  at  liberty  to  join  any  other  party  or  set 
of  men,  but  that  his  great  object  was  to  keep  the  Whigs  out 
of  power,  as  he  was  convinced  that  whenever  they  got  in  they 
would  ruin  the  country.  Lord  Liverpool  said  that  they  (the 
Tories)  had  been  too  long  in  possession  of  the  Government. 

May  23d. — Newmarket,  Epsom,  and  so  forth.  Nothing 
remarkably  new.  In  the  House  of  Commons  the  Poor  Law 
Bill  has  been  going  on  smoothly  ;  in  the  House  of  Lords 
little  of  note  but  one  of  Brougham's  exhibitions.  Old 
Wynford  brought  in  a  very  absurd  Bill  for  the  better  observ- 
ance of  the  Sabbath  (an  old  sinner  he,  who  never  cared 
three  straws  for  the  Sabbath),  which  Brougham  attacked 
with  excessive  virulence  and  all  his  powers  of  ridicule  and 
sarcasm.  His  speech  made  everybody  laugh  very  heartily, 
but  on  a  division,  the  Bishops  all  voting  with  Wynford,  the 
latter  carried  the  second  reading  by  three,  in  a  very  thin 
House.  The  next  day  the  Chancellor  came  down  with  a 
protest,  written  in  his  most  pungent  style,  very  smart,  but 
more  like  a  bit  of  an  article  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  than 
a  Parliamentary  protest.  Wynford  was  in  the  House  when 
he  entered  his  protest,  and  he  called  out  to  him,  "Holloa, 
Best,  look  at  my  protest ! " 

There  is  a  very  strong  impression  abroad  that  the  King  is 
cracked,  and  I  dare  say  there  is  some  truth  in  it.  He  gets 
so  very  choleric,  and  is  so  indecent  in  his  wrath.  Besides 
his  squabble  with  old  Lord  de  Saumarez,  he  broke  out  the 
other  day  at  the  Exhibition  (Somerset  House).  They  were 
showing  him  the  pictures,  and  Sir  Martin  Shee  (I  believe, 
but  am  not  sure),  pointing  out  Admiral  Napier's  said,  "That 
is  one  of  our  naval  heroes  ; "  to  which  his  Majesty  was 
pleased  to  reply  that  if  he  served  him  right  he  should  kick 
him  down-stairs  for  so  terming  him.  But  the  maddest  thing 
of  all  is  what  appeared  in  the  Gazette  of  Tuesday — the 

peerage  conferred  on .  She  is  a  disreputable,  half-mad 

33 


242  REIGN  CF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIII 

woman  !  he,  perhaps,  thought  it  fair  to  give  her  this  com- 
pensation for  not  being  Queen,  for  he  wanted  to  marry  her, 
and  would  have  done  so  if  the  late  king  would  have  consented. 
On  Monday  last  I  went  to  Petworth,  and  saw  the  finest 
fete  that  could  be  given.  Lord  Egremont  has  been  accus- 
tomed some  time  in  the  winter  to  feast  the  poor  of  the 
adjoining  parishes  (women  and  children,  not  men)  in  the 
riding-house  and  tennis-court,  where  they  were  admitted 
by  relays.  His  illness  prevented  the  dinner  taking  place  ; 
but  when  he  recovered  he  was  bent  upon  having  it,  and,  as 
it  was  put  off  till  the  summer,  he  had  it  arranged  in  the 
open  air,  and  a  fine  sight  it  was  ;  fifty-four  tables,  each  fifty 
feet  long,  were  placed  in  a  vast  semicircle  on  the  lawn  before 
the  house.  Nothing  could  be  more  amusing  than  to  look  at 
the  preparations.  The  tables  were  all  spread  with  cloths, 
and  plates,  and  dishes  ;  two  great  tents  were  erected  in  the 
middle  to  receive  the  provisions,  which  were  conveyed  in 
carts,  like  ammunition.  Plum -puddings  and  loaves  were 
piled  like  cannon-balls,  and  innumerable  joints  of  boiled  and 
roast  beef  were  spread  out,  while  hot  joints  were  prepared  in 
the  kitchen,  and  sent  forth  as  soon  as  the  firing  of  guns 
announced  the  hour  of  the  feast.  Tickets  were  given  to  the 
inhabitants  of  a  certain  district,  and  the  number  was  about 
4,000 ;  but,  as  many  more  came,  the  old  Peer  could  not 
endure  that  there  .should  be  anybody  hungering  outside  his 
gates,  and  he  went  out  himself  and  ordered  the  barriers  to  be 
taken  down  and  admittance  given  to  all.  They  think  6,COO 
were  fed.  Gentlemen  from  the  neighborhood  carved  for  them, 
and  waiters  were  provided  from  among  the  peasantry.  The 
food  was  distributed  from  the  tents  and  carried  off  upon 
hurdles  to  all  parts  of  the  semicircle.  A  band  of  music 
paraded  round,  playing  gay  airs.  The  day  was  glorious — an 
unclouded  sky  and  soft  southern  breeze.  Nothing  could  ex- 
ceed the  pleasure  of  that  fine  old  fellow ;  he  was  in  and  out 
of  the  windows  of  his  room  twenty  times,  enjoying  the  sight 
of  these  poor  wretches,  all  attired  in  their  best,  cramming 
themselves  and  their  brats  with  as  much  as  they  could  devour, 
and  snatching  a  day  of  relaxation  and  happiness.  After  a 
certain  time  the  women  departed,  but  the  park-gates  were 
thrown  open :  all  who  chose  came  in,  and  walked  about  the 
shrubbery  and  up  to  the  windows  of  the  house.  At  night 
there  was  a  great  display  of  fireworks,  and  I  should  think,  at 
the  time  they  began,  not  less  than  10,000  people  were  assem- 


1331.]  THE   PLURALITIES  BILL.  243 

bled.  It  was  altogether  one  of  the  gayest  and  most  beautiful 
spectacles  I  ever  saw,  and  there  was  something  affecting  in 
the  contemplation  of  that  old  man — on  the  verge  of  the  grave, 
from  which  he  had  only  lately  been  reprieved,  with  his  mind 
as  strong  and  his  heart  as  warm  as  ever — rejoicing  in  the 
diffusion  of  happiness  and  finding  keen  gratification  in  reliev- 
ing the  distresses  and  contributing  to  the  pleasures  of  the 
poor.  I  thought  how  applicable  to  him,  mutatis  mutandis, 
was  that  panegyric  of  Burke's  on  the  Indian  kings :  "  De- 
lighting to  reign  in  the  dispensation  of  happiness  during  the 
contracted  space  of  human  life,  strained  with  all  the  Teachings 
and  graspings  of  a  vivacious  mind  to  extend  the  dominion  of 
his  bounty  ....  and  to  perpetuate  himself  from  generation 
to  generation  as  the  guardian,  the  protector,  the  nourisher  of 
mankind." 

May  %4:th. — The  Chancellor,  who  loves  to  unbosom  him- 
self to  Sefton  because  he  knows  the  latter  thinks  him  the 
finest  fellow  breathing,  tells  him  that  it  is  nuts  to  him  to  be 
attacked  by  noble  Lords  in  the  Upper  House,  and  that  they 
had  better  leave  him  alone  if  they  care  for  their  own  hides. 
Since  he  loves  these  assaults,  last  night  he  got  his  bellyfull, 
for  he  was  baited  by  a  dozen  at  least,  and  he  did  not  come  out 
of  the  melee  so  chuckling  and  happy  as  usual.  The  matter 
related  to  the  Pluralities  Bill,  which  he  had  introduced  some 
nights  before,  in  an  empty  House,  without  giving  notice,  and 
after  having  told  many  people  (the  Archbishop  of  York  among 
others)  that  there  was  nothing  more  to  be  done  that  night. 
In  short,  he  was  at  his  tricks  again,  lying  and  shuffling,  false 
and  then  insolent,  and  all  for  no  discernible  end.  The  debate 
exhibits  a  detail  of  his  misstatements,  and  all  of  his  wriggling 
and  plunging  to  get  out  of  the  scrape  he  had  got  himself  into. 
It  is  because  scarcely  any  or  rather  no  motive  was  apparent 
that  it  is  with  difficulty  believed  that  he  meant  to  deceive 
anybody.  But  it  is  in  the  nature  of  the  man ;  he  cannot  go 
straightforward ;  some  object,  no  matter  how  trivial,  presents 
itself  to  his  busy  and  distempered  mind,  and  he  immediately 
begins  to  think  by  what  artifice  and  what  underhand  work  he 
can  bring  it  about ;  and  thus  he  exposes  himself  to  the  charges 
of  dishonorable  conduct  without  any  adequate  consideration  or 
cause.  He  reminds  me  c  f  the  man  in  "  Jonathan  Wild  "  who 
was  a  rogue  by  force  of  habit,  who  could  not  keep  his  hand 
out  of  his  neighbor's  pocket  though  he  knew  there  was 
nothing  in  it,  nor  help  cheating  at  cards  though  he  was  aware 


344  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

he  should  not  be  paid  if  he  won.  It  is  thought  that  the  ex- 
hibition of  last  night  will  not  be  without  its  influence  upon 
the  fate  of  this  Administration. 

May  27th. — The  Government  is  on  the  very  brink  of  dis- 
solution. The  Irish  Church  Bill  is  the  immediate  cause, 
Stanley  and  Graham  standing  out  against  the  majority  of  the 
Cabinet  with  regard  to  the  appropriation  clause.  Stanley, 
they  think,  would  have  knocked  under  if  Graham  had  not  been 
very  fierce  and  urged  him  on  to  resistance.  They  attribute 
all  the  present  bother  to  Graham,  who  pleads  conscience  and 
religious  feelings.  It  is  impossible  to  guess  how  it  will 
end,  and  there  is  a  terrible  turmoil.  Stanley  was  with  the 
King  for  two  hours  yesterday.  The  violent  party  evidently 
wish  Lord  Grey  to  let  Stanley  go  out,  and  those  who  choose 
to  go  with  him,  and  to  reenforce  the  Cabinet  with  Durham, 
Mulgrave,  and  that  sort  of  thing,  and  what  they  call  "  throw 
themselves  on  the  House  of  Commons  and  the  country."  On 
the  other  hand  the  half-Tories  and  moderates  wish  the  Gov- 
ernment to  adopt  a  moderate  tone  and  course,  and  seek  sup- 
port from  the  House  of  Lords.  As  to  the  House  of  Commons, 
it  is  a  curious  body,  supporting  the  Ministers  through  thick 
and  thin  one  day  and  buffeting  them  the  next.  On  the  Bank 
question  the  night  before  last  Althorp  was  beaten,  after  im- 
ploring everybody  to  come  and  support  him  and  making  the 
strangest  declarations.  I  am  very  sorry  that  there  should  be 
a  chance  of  a  split  on  such  a  question  as  the  Irish  Church, 
which  really  is  not  tenable.  His  colleagues  (or  their  friends 
at  least)  suspect  that  Graham  kicks  up  this  dust  with  ulterior 
views,  and  they  think  he  aims  at  a  junction  with  Peel — Stan- 
ley of  course  included — and  coming  into  office  with  a  moderate 
mixed  party.  It  will  be  a  great  evil  if  the  Government  is 
broken  up  just  now,  but  it  is  quite  clear  that  they  cannot  go 
on  long;  it  is  a  question  of  months.  The  Duke  of  Wellington 
told  me  yesterday  that  he  could  do  nothing,  and  he  will  be 
rather  shy  of  giving  to  the  world  a  second  volume  of  that  old 
business  in  which  he  got  so  bedeviled  two  years  ago. 

The  Lievens  are  recalled,  which  is  a  great  misfortune  to 
society.  She  is  inconsolable.  The  pill  is  gilded  well,  for  he 
is  made  governor  to  the  Imperial  Prince,  the  Emperor's  eldest 
son ;  but  the  old  story  of  Stratford  Canning,  and  Palmerston's 
obstinate  refusal  to  appoint  anybody  else,  has  probably  con- 
tributed to  this  change.  His  colleagues  have  endeavored  to 
persuade  him  to  cancel  the  appointment  and  name  Mulgrave, 


1834.]  RESIGNATIONS.  245 

whom  they  wish  to  provide  for,  but  he  will  not  hear  of  it.  I 
can't  conceive  why  they  don't  let  him  go  out  upon  it ;  they 
would  be  the  gainers  in  every  way.  We  are  now  in  what  is 
called  a  mess ;  the  Whigs  have  put  matters  in  such  a  condi- 
tion that  they  cannot  govern  the  country  themselves  and  that 
nobody  else  can  govern  it  either.  "  Time  and  the  hour  run 
through  the  roughest  day." 

May  28th. — On  returning  from  Epsom  I  heard  that  Stan- 
ley, Graham,  and  Richmond,  had  resigned,  and  it  was  supposed 
Ripon  would  follow  their  example.1  Althorp  adjourned  the 
debate  till  Monday  next.  Sefton  "  never  was  so  happy  in  his 
life."  It  is  a  bad  sign  when  he  is  happy — not  meaning  to  be 
wicked,  only  very  foolish  and  violent.  I  have  rarely  seen  the 
effects  of  a  neglected  education  and  a  vivacious  temperament 
manifested  in  a  more  remarkable  way  than  in  Sefton,  who  has 
naturally  a  great  deal  of  cleverness,  but  who,  from  the  above 
causes  and  the  absence  of  the  habit  of  moral  discipline  and  of 
calm  and  patient  reflection,  is  a  fool,  and  a  very  mischievous 
one.  They  will  be  forced  to  put  Peers  in  the  vacant  places, 
because  nobody  can  get  reelected.  The  rotten  boroughs  now 
seem  not  quite  such  abominations,  or  at  all  events  they  had 
some  compensating  advantages. 

June  1st. — The  arrangements  rendered  necessary  by  the 
recent  resignations  were  pretty  quickly  made,  but  they  have 
given  universal  satisfaction.  Whigs,  Tories,  and  Radicals, 
join  in  full  cry  against  them,  and  the  Times,  in  a  succession 
of  bitter,  vituperative  articles,  very  well  done,  fires  off  its  con- 
tempt and  disgust  at  the  paltry  patching  up  of  the  Cabinet. 
The  most  unpopular  appears  to  be  Lord  Auckland's  appoint- 
ment, and,  though  I  like  him  personally,  it  certainly  does  ap- 
pear strange  and  objectionable.  He  has  neither  reputation 
nor  political  calibre  to  entitle  him  to  such  an  elevation,  and 
his  want  of  urbanity  and  forbidding  manner  seem  to  render 
him  peculiarly  unfit  for  the  post  they  have  conferred  on  him. 
[Auckland  turned  out  a  very  popular  and,  I  believe,  very  good 
First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty.  I  have  heard  many  praises  and 
not  one  complaint  of  him. — December  7,  1834.  ]  The  gen- 

1  [The  members  of  the  Grey  Administration  who  seceded  on  the  Appropria- 
tion Resolution  (as  it  was  termed),  moved  bv  Mr.  Ward,  were  the  Duke  of 
Richmond,  Postmaster-General ;  the  Earl  of  Ripon,  Privy  Seal :  Mr.  Stanley, 
Cabinet  Secretary ;  and  Sir  James  Graham,  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty. 
The  Marquis  of  Conyngham  became  Postmaster-General,  the  Earl  of  Carlisle 
Privy  Seal,  Lord  Auckland  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  and  Mr.  Spring  Rice 
Colonial  Secretary.] 


240  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXIII 

eral  opinion  is  that  this  Cabinet,  so  amended,  cannot  go  on 
long ;  but  as  they  clearly  mean  to  throw  themselves  upon  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  as  the  House  will  at  all  events  sup- 
port them  for  the  present,  they  will  probably  last  some  time 
longer;  they  will  at  any  rate  scramble  through  this  session, 
and  during  the  recess  it  will  be  seen  whether  they  can  acquire 
public  confidence  and  what  chance  they  have  of  carrying  on 
the  Government. 

After  much  conversation  with  Duncannon,  Sefton,  Mul- 
gravc,  and  others,  I  have  acquired  a  tolerably  correct  under- 
standing of  the  history  of  these  inconvenient  proceedings. 
The  speech  of  Lord  John  Russell,  to  which  all  this  hubbub 
is  attributed,  may  have  somewhat  accelerated,  but  did  not 
produce,  the  crisis.  The  difference  has  long  existed  in  the 
Cabinet  on  the  subject  of  the  Irish  Church,  and  was  well 
known,  for  Althorp  stated  as  much  last  year.  Stanley  and 
Graham  were  both  vehemently  opposed  to  any  Parliamentary 
appropriation  of  the  surplus  revenues  of  the  Irish  Church, 
but  not  exactly  on  the  same  grounds.  Stanley  denies  the 
right  of  Parliament  to  interfere  at  all ;  that  is,  he  asserts 
that  Parliament  has  no  more  right  to  deal  with  the  revenues 
of  the  Church  than  it  would  have  to  deal  with  his  estate. 
Graham  does  not  deny  the  right,  but  contends  that  it  is  not 
expedient,  that  the  connection  between  the  two  countries  is 
mainly  held  together  by  the  Protestant  Church,  and  that 
any  meddling  with  the  Establishment  will  inevitably  lead  to 
its  downfall.  He  stands  upon  religious  grounds.  I  confess 
myself  to  be  lost  in  astonishment  at  the  views  they  take  on 
this  subject ;  that  after  swallowing  the  camel  of  the  Reform 
Bill,  they  should  strain  at  the  gnats  which  were  perched 
upon  the  camel's  back,  that  they  should  not  have  perceived 
from  the  first  that  such  reforms  as  these  must  inevitably  be 
consequent  upon  the  great  measure,  and,  above  all,  that  the 
prevalence  of  public  opinion,  abstract  justice,  and  the  con- 
dition of  Ireland,  all  loudly  call  for  their  adoption.  How- 
ever, such  are  their  opinions,  and  doubtless  very  conscien- 
tiously entertained.  Upon  Ward's  motion  being  announced, 
it  was  proposed  in  the  Cabinet  that  the  difficulty  should  be 
waived  for  the  present  by  moving  the  previous  question, 
and  to  this  the  dissentients  agreed ;  but  on  further  investi- 
gation they  discerned  that  if  this  was  moved,  in  all  proba- 
bility it  would  not  be  carried,  and  under  these  circumstances 
Stanley  proposed  at  once  to  resign.  In  the  Cabinet  some 


1834.]  LORD   LANSDOWNE  WAVERING.  247 

were  for  accepting  and  others  for  refusing  his  resignation, 
and  matters  remained  unsettled  when  Althorp  went  down  to 
the  House  of  Commons  on  the  night  of  Ward's  motion.  It 
was  strictly  true  (as  he  said)  that  he  was  informed  while 
Ward  was  speaking  that  they  had  resigned.  The  King 
accepted  their  resignations  at  once,  and  appears  to  have 
expressed  his  opinion  that  they  adopted  the  proper  course, 
but  he  told  the  Duke  of  Richmond  that  the  four  members  of 
the  Cabinet  who  had  quitted  it  were  the  four  whom  he  liked 
best  of  them  all.  When  they  were  gone  it  was  to  be  settled 
how  their  places  were  to  be  supplied.  Ellice  and  Spring 
Rice  were  indispensable  ;  the  Radicals  wanted  Durham  ;  the 
Whigs  wanted  Radnor,  Abercromby,  and  Hobhouse ;  Lord 
Lansdowne  was  wavering,  for  he  is  likewise  opposed  to  any 
meddling  with  the  Church,  though  not, perhaps  to  the  extent 
that  the  seceders  are,  or  to  such  a  degree  as  to  make  his 
resignation  imperative.  However,  he  haggled,  and  they  ap- 
pear to  have  thought  him  of  consequence  enough  to  bribe 
him  high  to  remain.  He  made  Durham's  exclusion  a  sine 
qud  non,  but  I  believe  all  the  others  were  equally  opposed 
to  his  readmission.  Spring  Rice  and  Auckland  are  Lans- 
downe's  personal  friends  and  firmest  adherents,  and  their 
promotion  is  very  agreeable  to  him  (if  he  did  not  insist  upon 
it).  Mulgrave  so  entirely  expected  to  come  in  that  he  told 
me  on  Epsom  race-course  on  Thursday  last  that  he  was  to  be 
one  of  the  new  Ministers,  though  he  did  not  know  which 
place  he  was  to  have.  Great,  tBerefore,  was  his  disgust 
when  they  only  offered  him  the  Post-Office  without  the 
Cabinet.  He  refused  it  with  some  indignation,,  and  thinks 
himself  very  ill-used.  I  do  not  yet  know  what  are  the 
reasons  which  induced  them  to  make  the  arrangements  they 
have  done,  and  deterred  them  from  applying  to  any  of  the 
above-mentioned  men.  It  certainly  has  given  great  disgust, 
and  will  not  serve  to  make  the  Administration  more  popular 
than  before.  Durham  is  of  course  furious,  and  if  Abercrom- 
by and  the  others  did  not  expect  or  desire  to  come  in,  they 
will  nevertheless  resent  being  passed  over,  and  in  favor  of 
such  people. 

June  2(1. — Yesterday  I  dined  with  Stanley ;  there  was  a 
vast  deal  of  fine  company,  outs  and  ins,  Richmond,  who  would 
not  stay  in  the  Post-Office,  and  Mulgrave  who  would  not  come 
into  it,  Auckland,  Palmerston,  etc.  After  dinner  Stanley 
talked  to  Mulgrave  and  toe  about  the  whole  business;  he  said 


248  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIIL 

that  above  three  weeks  ago,  in  consequence  of  the  difference 
in  the  Cabinet,  which  everybody  knew,  he  had  pressed  his 
resignation  on  his  colleagues,  who  refused  to  take  it,  that  he 
had  agreed  to  vote  for  the  previous  question  on  Ward's  mo- 
tion, but  they  were  informed  it  would  not  be  carried.  He 
then  said,  "Why  don't  you  take  ray  resignation?"  Still  they 
demurred,  and  on  that  day  nothing  was  settled.  He  then  saw 
the  King,  who  agreed  to  accept  his  resignation  conditionally, 
provided  Lord  Grey  could  make  other  arrangements,  and 
desired  Stanley  to  go  down  to  his  colleagues  and  talk  it  over. 
He  replied  that  it  was  too  late,  that  he  ought  then  to  be  in 
his  place  in  the  House  of  Commons,  as  the  debate  was  going 
on.  He  went  down,  saw  Lord  Grey,  settled  with  him  that  he 
should  resign,  and  then  sent  into  the  House  of  Commons  to 
Althorp  to  let  him  know  that  it  was  so  settled.  In  such 
hurry,  uncertainty,  and  confusion,  was  this  business  done. 
Stanley  talked  not  with  acrimony,  but  with  something  like 
contempt  of  the  strange  situation  in  which  the  Government, 
and  particularly  Lord  Grey,  is  placed,  and  he  "  hoped  "  they 
might  be  able  to  go  on  in  a  tone  which  implied  great  doubt 
if  they  would.  He  said  that  "  Lord  Grey  continues  to  preside 
over  a  Cabinet  which  is  to  a  certain  degree  committed  to  the 
principle  of  a  measure  of  which  he  disapproves,  and  he  accepts 
the  resignation  of  the  colleagues  with  whom  he  agrees;  that 
if  in  the  House  of  Commons  to-night  no  concession  is  made 
to  the  principle  of  the  measure  under  discussion,  it  will  appear 
strange  and  unaccountable  why  the  seceders  have  been  suf- 
fered to  go.  If  any  be  made,  it  will  be  inconsistent  with  the 
letter  which.  Lord  Grey  has  just  written  to  Ebrington,  in  a 
strain  as  conservative  as  the  King's  speech  to  the  bishops." 
Thus  Lord  Grey  appears  to  be  tossed  on  the  horns  of  a  very 
inconvenient  dilemma.  This  speech  of  the  King's,  which 
Stanley  alluded  to,  has  made  a  great  noise,  and  is  matter  of 
considerable  triumph  to  the  Conservatives.  It  is  reported  in 
the  papers  as  it  was  really  delivered,  except  some  absurdities 
with  which  it  is  mixed.  It  is  by  no  means  a  bad  speech,  and 
very  decided  in  its  tone ;  but  what  matters  decision  and  a  per- 
emptory tone  from  a  man  so  easily  led  or  misled  as  the  King  ? 
Lord  Grey's  letter  was  addressed  to  Ebrington  in  reply  to  an 
address  signed  by  many  supporters  of  Government,  and  has 
bsen  lying  on  the  table  at  Brookes's  for  public  inspection. 

June  3d. — Lord  Althorp  summoned  a  meeting  yesterday 
in  Downing  Street,  which  was  numerously  attended,  though 


1834.]  STANLEY  IN  OPPOSITION.  249 

some  of  the  usual  supporters  of  Government  staid  away  as 
followers  of  Stanley.  He  invited  them  to  support  the  pre- 
vious question,  when  there  was  a  good  deal  of  speaking  for 
and  against,  chiefly  among  county  members,  and  a  good  deal 
of  cheering  at  his  saying  he  hoped  he  had  their  confidence ; 
but  the  meeting  broke  up  without  any  satisfactory  conclusion, 
and  at  five  o'clock  the  general  impression  was  that  Govern- 
ment would  be  beaten,  and  this  in  spite  of  a  conviction  that 
they  would  resign  if  they  were.  In  the  morning  I  met  Gra- 
ham, who  said  that  he  did  not  know  whether  he  and  Stanley 
would  speak  or  not,  that  they  could  not  support  the  previous 
question  without  repudiating  the  declaration  with  which  it 
was  accompanied,  that  he  considered  the  question  to  involve 
the  fate  of  the  Irish  Church,  and  with  it  the  connection  be- 
tween the  two  countries.  I  told  him  we  differed  entirely,  but 
that  I  would  not  enter  upon  any  argument  on  the  subject; 
that  it  was  very  unfortunate,  and  I  thought  the  Government 
would  not  stand.  He  said  a  tremendous  contest  must  ensue 
upon  the  great,  question,  and  so  we  parted. 

In  the  evening  a  very  full  House.  Lord  Althorp  stated 
that  the  King  had  issued  a  Commission,  or  rather  extended 
the  powers  of  one  that  already  existed,  for  the  purpose  of 
effecting  the  objects  contemplated  by  the  resolution,  and 
begged  Ward  to  withdraw  his  motion.  He  would  not,  and 
then  Althorp  moved  the  previous  question,  which,  to  the 
astonishment  of  everybody,  was  carried  by  a  very  great  ma- 
jority, all  the  Tories  voting  with  Government.  Stanley  spoke, 
and  spoke  very  well,  but  with  considerable  acrimony  and  in 
a  tone  which  demonstrates  the  breach  between  him  and  his 
old  colleagues  to  be  irreparable.  He  was  vociferously  cheered 
by  the  Tories,  especially  at  one  passage  of  his  speech  about  a 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  his  clerical  budget,  which, 
however  pungent  and  smart,  appears  to  me  imprudent  and 
worth  nothing  as  argument.  I  am  very  sorry  he  has  taken 
such  a  line  upon  this  question.  His  scruples  have  come  too 
late  to  be  serviceable  to  the  cause  he  espouses,  and  all  he 
can  do  is  to  fan  the  flame  of  religious  discord  and  throw  in- 
numerable embarrassments  in  the  way  of  settling  a  very  . 
difficult  question,  the  ultimate  solution  of  which  is  110  longer 
doubtful. 

June  5th. — The  Portuguese  business  is  over — that  is,  for 
the  present — but  Lord  William  Russell  (whom  I  met  at  dinner 
at  Richmond  the  day  before  yesterday)  told  me  he  did  not 


250  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

think  Pedro  would  be  able  to  keep  possession  of  the  country, 
and  that  another  revolution  would  probably  take  place  when- 
ever the  foreign  troops  in  his  pay  were  disbanded  ;  tke  party 
against  him  is  too  strong  ;  he  said  that  nothing  but  an  incon- 
ceivable succession  of  blunders  and  great  want  of  spirit  and 
enterprise  on  the  part  of  Miguel  could  have  prevented  his 
success,  as  at  one  time  he  had  70,000  men,  while  the  other 
had  not  above  8,000  or  10,000  cooped  up  in  Oporto,  which  is 
not  a  defensible  place;  that  Miguel  might  at  any  moment 
during  the  contest  have  put  an  end  to  it.  The  country  is  in 
a  dreadfully  ruined  state  from  frequent  exactions  and  the  de- 
pression of  commerce  and  cultivation,  but  Carvalho,  Pedro's 
Minister  of  Finance,  told  Lord  William  he  should  have  no 
difficulty  with  his  budget,  and  could  find  money  to  discharge 
all  the  claims  upon  Government.  The  source  from  which  he 
expects  to  derive  his  assets  is  the  confiscated  Church  prop- 
erty, which  is  very  great.  Money,  however,  is  so  plentiful 
here  that  the  Portuguese  Government  have  been  offered  a 
loan  of  a  million  at  eighty,  which  they  have  declined.1 

June  1th. — I  was  in  the  House  of  Lords  last  night  to  hear 
a  long  debate  on  the  Commission,  when  Goderich  made  a  very 
good  speech,  defending  himself  for  his  resignation  and  at- 
tacking the  instrument ;  like  other  people,  as  soon  as  he  got 
out  of  office  he  spoke  with  greater  energy  and  force.  I  thought 
Lord  Grey  was  rather  feeble,  though  energetic  enough  in 
declaration  and  expression.  Phillpotts  I  did  not  hear,  but  he 
was  wretchedly  bad,  they  told  me.  The  Chancellor,  to  the 
surprise  of  every  one,  made  the  strongest  declaration  of  his 
resolution  not  to  permit  a  fraction  of  the  revenues  of  the  Irish 
Church  to  be  diverted  to  Catholic  purposes — the  purposes, 
in  my  mind,  to  which  they  ought  to  be  diverted,  and  to  which 
they  in  the  end  must  and  will  be.  The  Government  is  now 
reformed,  and  will  scramble  and  totter  on  for  some  time. 
Things  are  not  ripe  for  a  change,  but  people  will  continue 
more  and  more  to  look  for  a  junction  between  Peel  and  Stan- 
ley. God  forbid,  however,  that  we  should  have  two  parties 
established  upon  the  principles  of  a  religious  opposition  to 
each  other  ;  it  would  be  the  worst  of  evils,  and  yet  the  times 
appear  to  threaten  something  of  the  sort.  There  is  the  gabble 

1  [The  Quadruple  Treaty  for  the  pacification  of  the  Peninsular  kingdoms 
was  signed  in  London  on  the  22d  of  April ;  and  on  the  9th  of  May  a  decisive 
battle  had  been  gained  by  the  troops  of  I>om  Pedro  over  those  of  Dorn  Miguel 
Don  Carlos  and  Dom  Miguel  soon  afterward  withdrew  from  the  Peninsula.] 


1834.]  WELLINGTON  AT   OXFORD.  251 

of  "  the  Church  in  danger,"  the  menacing  and  sullen  dispo- 
sition of  the  Dissenters,  all  arrued  with  new  power,  and  the 
restless  and  increasing  turbulence  of  the  Catholics,  all  hating 
one  another,  and  the  elements  of  discord  stirred  up  first  by 
one  and  then  another. 

June  9th. — Melbourne  said  to  me  on  Saturday  night,  "  You 
know  why  Brougham  made  that  violent  declaration  against 
the  Catholics  in  his  speech  the  other  night,  don't  you  ?  "  I 
said,  "  No."  Then  he  added,  "  That  was  for  Spring  Rice's 
election,  to  please  the  Dissenters."  However,  Duncannon 
says  he  does  not  believe  it  was  for  that  object,  but  certainly 
thrown  out  as  a  sop  to  the  Dissenters  generally,  who  are  vio- 
lently opposed  to  any  provision  being  made  for  the  Catholic 
clergy.  Duncannon  added  that  "  those  were  his  (Brougham's) 
opinions  as  far  as  he  had  any,  as  they  were  not  very  strong  on 
any  subject.' 

June  15th. — Ascot  races  last  week ;  many  people  kept 
away  at  Oxford,  which  seems  to  have  been  a  complete  Tory 
affair,  and  on  the  whole  a  very  disgraceful  exhibition  of  big- 
otry and  party  spirit ;  plenty  of  shouting  and  that  sort  of  en- 
thusiasm, which  is  of  no  value  except  to  the  foolish  people  who 
were  the  object  of  it,  and  who  were  quite  enraptured.1  The 
reception  of  the  Duke,  however  vociferous,  can  hardly,  on  re- 
flection, have  given  him  much  pleasure,  when  he  saw  New- 
castle, Winchelsea,  Wetherell,  and  hoc  genus  omne,  as  much 
the  objects  of  idolatry  as  himself.  Peel  very  wisely  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  concern,  and  they  are  probably 
very  angry  with  him  for  absenting  himself.  The  resentment 
he  must  feel  toward  the  University  on  account  of  their  con- 
duct to  him  must  afford  full  scope  to  all  the  contempt  these 
proceedings  are  calculated  to  excite.  There  was  a  vast  mob 
of  fine  people,  Mrs.  Arbuthnot  among  the  rest.  The  Duke 
made  rather  indifferent  work  of  his  Latin  speeches.  As  usual 
he  seemed  quite  unconcerned  at  the  applause  with  which  he 
was  greeted  ;  no  man  ever  courted  that  sort  of  distinction 
less. 

June  18th. — Lord  Conyngham  and  George  Byng  are  to  be 
Postmaster  and  a  Lord  of  Treasury,  Abercromby  is  to  be  Mas- 
ter of  the  Mint,  and  Cutler  Fergusson  Judge  Advocate,  ap- 
pointments sneered  and  laughed  at.  When  Althorp  an- 
n  xinced  the  first  in  the  House  of  Commons  Hume  said,  "  God 

1  [The  Duke  of  Wellington  was  installed  as  Chancellor  of  the  University  of 
Oxford  on  the  10th  of  June.l 


252  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

bless  us  !  is  it  possible  ?  "  Some  think  Abercromby  will  be  of 
use  to  them — that  he  is  grave,  practical,  industrious,  and  car- 
ries weight  in  the  House.  I  am  unable  to  discover  any  thing 
in  him,  except  his  consistency,  to  entitle  him  to  any  praise. 
An  odd  thing  happened  to  Brougham  the  other  day.  He  got 
a  note  from  Althorp  while  he  was  sitting  in  his  Court  about 
the  insolence  and  violence  of  the  Times,  and  that  its  lies 
and  abuse  of  the  Government  ought  to  be  put  a  stop  to  by 
some  means.  The  Chancellor  tore  the  note  up,  and  after 
finishing  his  business  departed.  Two  hours  afterward  Lemar- 
chant  got  a  note  from  the  editor  to  say  that  the  note  had  been 
picked  up,  put  together,  and  was  in  his  possession.  Brougham 
was  furious,  and  sent  to  ask  the  name  of  the  person  who 
gave  it,  promising  to  forgive  him  if  it  was  given  up,  and 
threatening  if  it  was  not  to  dismiss  every  officer  in  his  Court, 
and  not  to  replace  any  of  them  till  the  culprit  was  discovered. 
.  June  20th. — The  Tories  are  in  'arms  and  eager  for  the 
fray.  There  was  a  dinner  of  fifty  at  the  Conservative  Club 
on  the  18th  (Waterloo  day),  with  healths  and  speeches,  when 
Peel  delivered  himself  of  a  speech  half  an  hour  long,  to  which 
vast  importance  is  attached.  People,  however,  hear  things, 
as  they  see  things,  differently.  Theodore  Hook,  who  was 
present,  told  me  "  it  was  very  satisfactory,  a  declaration  of  war ; 
that  he  announced  his  having  supported  the  Government 
while  he  could  from  a  sense  of  duty,  but  that  seeing 
they  were  resolved  to  attack  the  Church,  he  was  prepared  to 
act  with,  or  lead  (I  forget  which),  any  party  which  might  be 
formed  upon  the  principle  of  supporting  the  Establishment; 
that  the  Tories  were  few  in  numbers,  but  strong  in  character," 
and  so  on.  Vesey  Fitzgerald,  who  was  likewise  there,  said  it 
was  no  declaration  of  war  whatever — a  strong  Conservative 
speech,  but  not  violent  in  any  way,  nor  indicative  of  any  in- 
tended deviation  from  the  course  Peel  has  heretofore  pursued. 
So  his  acts  must  show  which  report  is  the  more  correct. 
When  we  hear  that  his  speech  pleased  Chandos  and  Falmouth, 
one  can't  help  believing  it  must  have  been  somewhat  fierce. 
I  have  great  confidence  in  Peel's  watchful  sagacity,  but  his 
game  is  a  very  difficult  one,  and,  with  all  his  prudence,  he  may 
make  a  false  step.  It  is  so  much  his  interest  to  ascertain 
the  real  disposition  of  the  country  that  I  am  disposed  to 
defer  very  much  to  his  views  and  notions  of  probabilities, 
otherwise  I  can  with  difficulty  believe  that  it  is  wise  in  him 
to  encourage  and  head  a  High  Church  party  and  promote 


1834.]  TORY    WARFARE.  253 

the  senseless  cry  of  the  Church  in  danger.  It  is  the  contest 
itself  as  much  as  the  triumph  of  any  party  that  is  to  be 
deprecated,  for  nothing  is  like  the  exasperation  of  religious 
quarrels,  and  victory  is  always  abused  and  moderation  for- 
gotten, whichever  side  has  the  ascendant.  Every  day,  how- 
ever, it  becomes  more  apparent  that  this  Government  cannot 
last ;  living  as  I  do  with  men  of  all  parties,  I  collect  a  variety 
of  opinions,  some  of  them  intrinsically  worth  little,  except  as 
straws  show  which  way  the  wind  blows,  but  which  satisfy  me 
that  the  present  House  of  Commons  has  no  great  affection 
for  them,  and  would  not  have  much  difficulty  in  supporting' 
any  other  Administration  that  presented  a  respectable  ap- 
pearance, and  would  act  upon  principles  at  once  liberal  and 
moderate.  The  majority  of  the  members  dread  the  dissolution, 
knowing  that  the  next  elections  must  be  fiercely  contested, 
and  be  expensive  and  embarrassing  in  all  ways.  Altogether 
it  is  difficult  to  conceive  a  more  unsettled  and  unsatisfactory 
state  of  things,  nor  one  from  which  it  appears  more  hopeless 
to  emerge.  In  the  state  of  parties  and  of  the  country  the 
one  thing  needful — a  strong  Government — appears  the  one 
thing  that  it  is  impossible  to  obtain. 

June  2£th. — Lord  Auckland  told  me  the  other  night  that 
Government  are  prepared  for  the  Dissenters  Bill  being 
thrown  out  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  that  they  don't  care. 
He  thinks  it  never  will  be  carried,  and  will  be  a  standing 
grievance  of  no  great  weight.  The  Chancellor  made  an 
admirable  speech  on  secondary  punishments,  connecting  with 
it  the  question  of  education.  He  told  me  he  was  called  on 
to  pronounce  an  essay  without  any  preparation,  and  he  did 
the  best  he  could.  I  did  not  hear  it,  but  was  told  it  was 
excellent.  He  shines  in  this  sort  of  thing  ;  his  views  are  so 
enlarged  and  philosophical,  and  they  are  expressed  in  such 
becoming  and  beautiful  language. 

June  2Qth. — There  was  a  good  debate  on  Monday  in  the 
House  of  Commons  on  the  Irish  Tithes  Bill.  Peel  made  a 
very  clever  speech,  attacking  the  Commission  with  great 
felicity,  and  John  Russell  made  an  excellent  speech  in  reply, 
failing  to  excuse  the  Commission,  which  is  inexcusable,  but 
very  good  upon  the  question.  Both  he  and  Ellice  spoke  out. 
I  was  at  the  Abbey  on  Tuesday  and  yesterday  for  a  perform- 
ance and  a  rehearsal  of  the  "Messiah."  The  spectacle  is 
very  fine,  and  it  is  all  admirably  managed — no  crowd  or  in- 
convenience, and  easy  egress  and  ingress — but  the  "  Messiah  " 


>54  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

is  not  so  effective  as  I  expected,  not  so  fine  as  in  York  Min- 
ster ;  the  choruses  are  admirably  performed,  but  the  single 
voices  are  miserable — singers  of  extreme  mediocrity,  or  whose 
powers  are  gone  ;  old  Bellamy,  who  was  at  Handel's  com- 
memoration as  a  singing  boy,  Miss  Stephens,  etc. 

June  21lth. — Lord  William  Russell  told  me  last  night  that 
his  brother  John  has  frequently  offered  to  resign,  and  they 
never  would  let  him  ;  at  last  he  said  he  must  speak  out  on 
this  Church  appropriation  question,  or  positively  he  would 
not  stay  in,  so  that  his  speech  was  not  blurted  out,  as  I  sup- 
posed, but  was  the  result  of  a  fixed  resolution.  This  alters 
the  case  as  far  as  he  is  concerned,  and  it  can't  be  denied  that 
he  was  right  in  thinking  it  better  that  Government  should 
make  itself  clearly  understood,  and  that  a  break-up  was 
preferable  to  going  on  without  any  real  cordiality  or  con- 
currence among  each  other,  and  the  Administration  an  object 
of  suspicion  to  all  parties.  William  Russell  said  that  Gov- 
ernment were  quite  aware  that  Peel  and  the  Duke  could 
turn  them  out  when  they  would,  but  that  they  would  not 
know  what  to  do  next. 

Don  Carlos  is  coming  to  town  to  Gloucester  Lodge.  When 
they  told  him  the  Spanish  Embassador  (Miraflores)  was  come 
to  wait  upon  him,  he  replied,  "  I  have  no  Embassador  at  the 
Court  of  London."  He  will  not  take  any  money,  and  he  will 
neither  relinquish  his  claims  to  the  Spanish  throne  nor  move 
hand  or  foot  in  prosecuting  them.  "If  chance  will  have  me 
king,  why  let  chance  crown  me,  without  my  stir."  (He  was 
meditating  evasion  at  this  time,  and  got  away  undiscovered 
soon  after.)  They  say  he  can  get  all  the  money  he  wants 
from  his  partisans  in  Spain,  and  that  there  is  no  lack  of  wealth 
in  the  country.  Strange  infatuation  when  men  will  spend 
their  blood  and  their  money  for  such  a  miserable  object  !  If 
he  had  any  thing  like  spirit,  enterprise,  and  courage,  he  would 
make  a  fine  confusion  in  Spain,  and  probably  succeed;  his 
departure  from  the  Peninsula  and  taking  refuge  here  has  not 
caused  the  war  to  languish  in  the  north.  Admiral  Napier  is 
arrived,  and  has  taken  a  lodging  close  to  him  in  Portsmouth. 
Miraflores  paid  a  droll  compliment  to  Madame  de  Lieven  the 
other  night.  She  was  pointing  out  the  various  beauties  at 
some  ball,  and  among  others  Lady  Seymour,  and  asked  him  if 
he  did  not  admire  her.  He  said:  "  Elle  est  trop  jeune,  trop 
f  raiche,"  and  then,  with  a  tender  look  and  squeezing  her  hand. 
"  J'aime  les  femmes  un  peu  pass6es." 


183 l.J  THE  FINSBURY  ELECTION.  255 

July  4th. — The  other  night  Stanley  made  a  fierce  speech 
on  Irish  tithes,  and  plainly  showed  that  no  reconciliation 
between  him  and  the  Government  is  feasible.  Last  night 
Littleton  made  a  melancholy  exhibition  with  O'Connell. 
Formerly  a  Minister  must  have  resigned  who  cut  such  a  figure ; 
now  it  is  very  different,  for  no  matter  how  unfit  a  man  may 
be,  it  is  ten  to  one  nobody  better  can  be  found  to  replace  him. 
A  more  disgraceful  affair  never  was  seen ;  the  Tories  chuckled, 
the  Government  and  their  friends  were  disgusted,  ashamed, 
and  vexed;  Durham  sat  under  the  gallery  and  enjoyed  the 
fun. 

I  was  at  Woolwich  yesterday  to  see  the  yacht  in  which 
the  Queen  is  to  sail  to  the  Continent.  Such  luxury  and 
splendor,  and  such  gorgeous  preparations !  She  will  sail  like 
Cleopatra  down  the  Cydnus,  and  though  she  will  have  no 
beautiful  boys  like  Cupids  to  fan  her,  she  will  be  attended  by 
Emily  Bagot,  who  is  as  beautiful  as  the  Mater  Cupidinum. 
She  will  return  to  her  beggarly  country  in  somewhat  different 
trim  from  that  in  which  she  left  it,  with  all  her  earls  and 
countesses,'  equipages,  pages,  valets,  dressers,  etc.  The  Duke 
of  Wellington  gave  a  great  ball  the  other  night,  and  invited 
all  the  Ministers.  The  Chancellor  was  there  till  three  or  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  they  say  it  was  very  amusing  to 
see  the  Duke  doing  the  honors  to  him.  The  Tories  have  had 
a  great  disappointment  in  the  Finsbury  election,  which  they 
fancied  Pownall  was  sure  of  carrying  the  first  day,  but  Tommy 
Duncomb  beat  him  hollow  the  second.  It  is  certainly  a  great1 
exhibition  of  Radical  strength  in  that  metropolitan  district, 
and  may  serve  to  sober  the  Tories  a  little,  and  bring  some  of 
them  down  from  their  high  horses. 

July  Gth. — When  I  wrote  the  above  I  had  not  read  Stan- 
ley's speech,  and  had  only  heard  he  had  used  very  strong 
language.  I  was  greatly  astonished  when  I  did  read  it,  and 
fully  concur  in  the  nearly  universal  opinion  that,  however 
clever  and  laughable  it  may  have  been,  it  was  a  most  inju- 
dicious and  unfortunate  exhibition,  and  is  calculated  to  do 
him  a  serious  and  lasting  injury.  (This  was  the  famous 
"  thimblerig  "  speech.)  I  do  not  know  when  I  have  read  or 
heard  so  virulent  and  coarse  an  invective,  and  it  is  rather 
disgusting  than  any  thing  else  to  see  such  a  one  fired  off  at  the 
men  with  whom  he  has  been  acting  for  some  years  (up  to  three 
weeks  ago),  with  whom  he  declared  his  entire  concurrence  on 
every  other  question,  from  whom  he  expressed  the  liveliest 


256  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXIH. 

regret  at  separating,  and  to  whom  he  was  individually  bound 
by  the  strongest  ties  of  friendship  and  regard.  (It  will  be 
seen  that  he  made  similar  professions  when  he  separated 
from  Peel's  Government  in  '46,  and  instantly  rushed  into 
a  similar  opposition.)  The  Tories  cheered  him  lustily;  and 
what  must  he  on  reflection  think  of  such  cheers,  and  of 
his  position  in  the  House — to  be  holloa'd  on  by  the  party 
which  he  has  hitherto  treated  with  the  greatest  contempt, 
and  which  he  thinks  the  very  essence  of  bigotry  and  pre- 
judice, at  least  on  all  secular  matters,  against  his  old 
friends  and  colleagues,  to  whom  he  is  still  allied  in  opinion 
upon  almost  every  great  question  of  foreign  or  domestic 
policy  ?  He  availed  himself  of  his  knowledge  that  there  was 
nobody  on  the  Treasury  Bench  who  could  answer  him  to  fling 
out  this  spiteful  and  intemperate  invective.  If  Brougham 
could  have  been  thrown  for  half  an  hour  into  the  House,  "like 
an  eagle  into  a  dovecot,"  what  a  grand  opportunity  there  would 
have  been  for  his  tremendous  sarcasm  to  vent  itself  1  As  it 
was,  Stanley  went  away  unscathed,  for  though  Althorp  was 
not  bad  in  the  few  words  he  said  with  great  good-humor,  and 
Littleton  made  a  very  tolerable  speech,  the  former  twaddled, 
and  the  latter  has  been  too  much  damaged  to  allow  of  his 
saying  any  thing  with  effect ;  besides,  he  quoted  a  speech  of 
Stanley's  against  him  (at  all  times  a  poor  argument)  and  did 
not  quote  the  whole  of  it.  I  dare  say  Peel  was  not  very  sorry 
to  hear  Stanley's  speech,  and  justly  estimated  the  value  of  the 
cheers  with  which  it  was  hailed.  It  places  him  at  an  im- 
measurable distance  below  Peel,  and  puts  an  end  to  any  pre- 
tensions of  rivalship,  if  he  ever  entertained  any.  If  a  junction 
is  to  take  place  between  them,  Stanley  must  be  content  with 
a  subordinate  part ;  and,  act  with  whomsoever  he  may,  he  will 
never  inspire  real  confidence  or  conciliate  real  esteem.  I  en- 
tertain this  opinion  with  regret,  and  could  have  wished  he  had 
cut  a  better  figure.  I  dined  with  a  Tory  at  the  "  Travelers  " 
yesterday,  and  he  said :  "  Of  course  we  cheered  him  as  loudly 
as  we  could ;  we  want  to  get  him,  but  I  must  own  that  it  was 
a  very  injudicious  speech  and  very  unbecoming."  These  are 
the  sort  of  events  in  a  man's  life,  which  influence  his  destiny 
ever  after ;  it  is  not  that  his  political  career  will  be  marred, 
or  that  any  thing  can  prevent  his  talents  rendering  it  on  the 
whole  important,  and  probably  successful,  but  there  is  a  re- 
vulsion in  men's  minds  about  him,  which  cannot  fail  to  pro- 
duce a  silent,  but  in  the  end  a  sensible,  effect  upon  his  fortunes. 


1834.]  TEE  WHIG   GOVERNMENT  AT  AN  END.  257 

It  is  remarkable  that  Lord  Derby,  who  is  a  very  shrewd  and 
sagacious  old  man,  never  would  hear  of  his  grandson's  super- 
lative merits,  and  always  in  the  midst  of  his  triumphs  ques- 
tioned his  ultimate  success. 

July  10th. — Came  to  town  last  night  from  Newmarket, 
and  found  things  in  a  fine  state.  Althorp  had  resigned  three 
days  ago ;  his  resignation  was  accepted,  on  which  Lord  Grey 
resigned  too.  Both  of  them  explained  in  Parliament  last 
night,  Lord  Grey,  as  they  tell  me,  in  a  very  moving  and 
gentlemanlike  speech,  admirably  delivered.  The  Duke  of 
Wellington  made  a  violent  attack  upon  him  in  reply,  which  it 
is  thought  he  might  as  well  have  omitted.  (The  Duke's  speech 
gave  great  disgust  to  many  even  of  his  own  party,  and  was 
afterward  assigned  as  a  reason  by  Stanley  and  his  friends  for 
not  taking  office  with  the  Duke.)  Nobody  knows  what  is  to 
happen.  The  King  sent  for  Melbourne,  and  his  nephew,  John 
Ponsonby,  told  me  last  night  he  believed  he  would  endeavor 
to  carry  on  the  Government ;  but  whether  he  does  or  not  it 
can't  last ;  the  Whig  Government  is  virtually  at  an  end. 
The  Tories,  who  were  shouting  the  night  before  last,  are  con- 
siderably disappointed  that  the  King  did  not  instantly  avail 
himself  of  Lord  Grey's  resignation  and  send  fcr  them,  or  at 
least  for  Peel.  I  don't  suppose,  however,  that  it  is  from  any 
predilection  for  the  Whigs  that  he  tries  to  bolster  up  this 
Government,  but  he  is  said  to  have  an  exceeding  horror  of  a 
dissolution,  and  it  is  just  possible  he  may  be  acting  under 
some  good  advice  surreptitiously  conveyed  to  him,  for  under  all 
circumstances  I  think  he  is  taking  the  most  prudent  part  he  can. 
It  is  very  essential  that  he  should  have  no  hand  in  the  dissolu- 
tion of  his  Cabinet,  and  if  he  does  his  best  to  reconstruct  it, 
and  gives  the  remaining  Ministers  a  fair  trial,  he  will  have  a 
good  right  to  call  upon  the  House  of  Commons  and  the  country 
to  support  him  in  any  ulterior  measures  that  circumstances  may 
compel  him  to  adopt. 

Thus  Littleton  has  been  the  instrument  of  breaking  up 
this  Government ;  a  man  powerless  to  serve  his  party  has 
contrived  to  destroy  it.  It  is  curious  to  trace  this  matter 
from  the  outset.  When  Hobhouse  threw  up  his  office  and 
his  seat,  it  was  extremely  difficult  to  find  a  successor  to 
him  in  the  Irish  Office,  principally  because  not  one  man  in 
fifty  could  procure  a  seat  in  Parliament,  or  his  reelection  if 
already  there.  In  this  emergency  Littleton  volunteered  his 
services  ;  he  was  sure  of  his  seat,  and  he  wanted  eventually  a 


258  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

peerage,  so  he  wrote  to  Lord  Grey,  and  said  that  if  he 
thought  him  capable  of  filling  the  place  he  would  undertake 
it.1  Nothing  better  suggested  itself;  it  was  a  way  out  of  the 
difficulty,  and  they  closed  with  his  offer.  No  man  could  be 
less  fit  for  such  a  situation;  his  talents  are  slender,  his  man- 
ners unpopular,  and  his  vanity  considerable.  When  warned 
against  O'Connell  he  said,  "  Oh,  leave  me  to  manage  Dan," 
and  manage  him  he  did  with  a  vengeance,  and  a  pretty  Tartar 
he  caught.  His  first  attempts  at  management  were  exhibited 
in  the  business  of  Baron  Smith.  When  the  Coercion  question 
came  to  be  agitated,  he  thought  himself  very  cunning  in 
beginning  a  little  intrigue  without  the  knowledge  of  his  col- 
leagues, and  he  wrote  to  Lord  Wellesley  for  the  purpose  of 
prevailing  upon  him  to  recommend  to  the  Cabinet  that  the 
Bill  should  pass  without  the  strong  clauses,  and  most  unac- 
countably Lord  Wellesley  did  so.2  He  stated  that  this  omis- 
sion was  desirable  on  account  of  circumstances  connected 
with  the  Government  in  England,  and  Lord  Wellesley  replied 
that  if  it  was  necessary  on  that  account  he  would  contrive  to 
manage  matters  without  the  clauses.  Upon  this  he  put  him- 
self in  communication  with  O'Connell,  and  never  doubting 
that  his  and  Lord  Wellesley's  advice  (in  accordance  as  it  was 
with  the  opinions  of  certain  members  of  this  Cabinet)  would 
prevail,  he  gave  O'Connell  those  expectations  the  disappoint- 

1  [This  statement,  though  doubtless  current  at  the  time,  is  to  my  certain 
knowledge  entirely  inaccurate.     Mr.  Littleton  was  confined  to  his  sofa  at  the 
time  by  an  accident,  and  knew  little  of  what  was  going  on.     Nobody  was  more 
surprised  than  himself  to  receive  from  Lord  Grey  a  spontaneous  and  unexpected 
offer  of  the  Chief  Secretaryship  of  Ireland.     Ho  was  fully  aware  of  the  extreme 
difficulties  of  the  office,  winch,  was  at  that  moment  perhaps  the  most  important 
in  the  Government.     With  equal  modesty  and  candor  he  distrusted  his  own 
ability  to  fill  it,  and  he  still  more  distrusted  his  own  want  of  caution  and  pru- 
dence, which  was  his  weak  point.     He  accepted  it,  however,  to  relieve  the 
Government  from  embarrassment,  but  he  accompanied  his  acceptance  with  a 
declaration  to  Lord  Grey  that  he  would  gladly  resign  his  office  whenever  a 
better  man  could  be  found  to  fill  it.     It  had  previously  been  offered  to  Mr. 
Abercromby,  who  refused  to  accept  it  without  a  seat  in  .the  Cabinet.] 

2  [These  details  arc  also  far  from  accurate,  as  has  now  been  demonstrated 
by  the  publication  (1872)  of  Lord  Hatherton's  own  memoir  on  the  subject,  and 
of  the  original  correspondence,  which  proves  that  the  letter  to  Lord  Wellesley 
was  written  at  the  instigation  of  the  Lord  Chancellor,  and  that  it  expressed 
the  deliberate  opinions  of  several  members  of  the  Cabinet.     It  must,  however, 
be  acknowledged  that  it  was  written  without  the  knowledge  of  Lord  Grey  and 
in  opposition  to  his  views.     The  subsequent  communication  made  by  Mr.  Lit- 
tleton to  O'Connell  was  made  with  the  knowledge  and  concurrence  of  Lord 
Althorp,  though  Mr.  Littleton  said  more  to  O'Connell  than  Lord  Althorp  had 
intended— an  indiscretion  which  Mr.  Littleton  himself  admitted:  but  O'Con- 
nell made  a  very  base  and  ungenerous  use  of  the  confidence  which  had  been 
extended  to  him.] 


1834.]  DISCUSSION   IN   THE  CABINET.  259 

ment  of  which  produced  the  scene  between  them  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  Lord  Grey,  however,  was  equally  as- 
tonished and  dissatisfied  with  this  last  recommendation  of 
Lord  Wellesley's,  which  was  directly  at  variance  with  the 
opinion  he  had  given  some  time  before,  and  he  accordingly 
asked  him  to  explain  why  he  had  changed  his  mind,  and  re- 
quested him  to  reconsider  his  latter  opinion.  He  still  replied 
that  if  it  was  necessary,  he  would  do  without  the  clauses. 
Upon  this  there  was  a  discussion  in  the  Cabinet,  and  Al- 
thorp,  Grant,  Ellice,  Abercromby,  and  Rice,  were  in  a 
minority,  who,  however,  ultimately  gave  in  to  the  majority. 
All  this  time  Littleton  went  on  negotiating  with  O'Connell,1 
having  told  Althorp  alone  that  he  was  doing  so,  though  not 
telling  him  all  that  passed,  and  neither  of  them  telling  Lord 
Grey.  Upon  the  blow-up  which  O'Connell  made,  Althorp  very 
unnecessarily  resolved  to  resign,  and  when  he  did  Lord  Grey 
followed  his  example. 

The  Tories  have  been  mighty  cock-a-hoop,  but  their  joy 
is  a  good  deal  damped  within  the  last  twelve  hours,  for  it  is 
now  universally  believed  that  Althorp  will  be  prevailed  upon 
to  remain,  and  will  himself  be  at  the  head  of  the  Govern- 
ment. His  popularity  is  so  great  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  there  is  such  a  dread  of  a  dissolution,  that  if  this  ar- 
rangement takes  place  they  will  scramble  on  some  time 
longer,  and  at  this  advanced  period  of  the  session  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  the  House  of  Lords  will  throw  out  any  of 
their  essential  measures.  I  met  Duncannon,  Ellice,  and  John 
Russell,  this  evening  riding,  and  they  seemed  in  very  good 
spirits.  I  have  no  doubt  Ellice  and  Duncannon  have  had  a 
main  hand  in  all  this  business,  and  that  they  urged  on  Little- 
ton to  do  what  he  did.  The  House  was  adjourned  till  Mon- 
day, to  afford  time  for  the  new  arrangement.  Brougham 
spoke  like  a  maniac  last  night,  and  his  statements  were  at 
direct  variance  with  Althorp's,  the  latter  declaring  that  they 
were  all  out,  and  the  former  that  they  were  all  still  in  office, 
and  that  Grey  and  Althorp  had  alone  resigned. 

July  12th. — I  went  out  of  town  yesterday  morning,  and  did 
not  return  till  seven  o'clock ;  in  the  mean  time  affairs  were 
materially  altered.  I  met  Duncannon  riding  with  a  faco  as 
long  as  the  pictures  of  Hudibras,  which  at  once  told  the  tale 
of  baffled  hopes.  Melbourne's  negotiation  had  failed  entirely. 

>  [Mr.  Littleton  had  but  one  conversation  with  O'Connell.] 


260  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

"  Jack," '  who  was  backed  at  even  against  the  field  the  night 
before  in  the  House  of  Commons,  would  have  nothing  to  say 
to  it.  I  have  not  yet  heard  in  detail  the  circumstances  of  this 
failure,  but  it  will  probably  turn  out  that  the  King  insisted 
upon  some  Conservative  conditions,  or  an  attempt  at  coalition, 
which  is  a  favorite  plan  of  his.  Yesterday  it  was  generally 
expected  that  Peel  would  be  sent  for,  or  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton. Peel  called  at  Apsley  House  and  was  with  the  Duke  a 
long  time  yesterday,  and  afterward,  as  the  Duke  rode  through 
the  Park,  Ellice,  who  was  sitting  on  his  horse  talking  to  Sir 
Edward  Kerrison,  said,  "  There  goes  a  man  who  knows  more 
than  he  did  an  hour  ago."  It  is  expected  that  Peel,  if  called 
upon,  will  endeavor  to  form  and  carry  on  a  Government;  but 
opinions  are  greatly  divided  as  to  the  support  he  would  get  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  as  to  the  effect  of  a  dissolution, 
should  he  be  driven  to  adopt  that  hazardous  alternative.  I  think 
that  almost  every  thing  depends  upon  the  course  which 
Althorp  takes,  as  far  as  the  rest  of  this  session  is  concerned. 
His  popularity  in  the  House  of  Commons  is  very  great,  and 
even  surprising ;  it  is  a  proof  of  the  influence  which  personal 
character  may  obtain  when  unadorned  with  great  abilities  and 
shining  parts ;  his  remarkable  bonhomie,  unalterable  good 
nature  and  good  temper,  the  conviction  of  his  honesty  and 
sincerity,  and  of  his  want  of  ambition,  his  single-mindedness, 
his  unfeigned  desire  to  get  out  of  the  trammels  and  cares  of 
office,  have  all  combined  to  procure  for  him  greater  personal 
regard,  and  to  a  certain  degree  greater  influence,  than  any 
Minister  ever  possessed  in  my  recollection.  There  is  no  such 
feeling  as  animosity  against  Althorp.  Some  detest  his  prin- 
ciples, some  despise  his  talents,  but  none  detest  or  despise  the 
man ;  and  he  is  said  by  those  who  are  judges  of  such  matters 
to  have  one  talent,  and  that  is  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
House  of  Commons  and  great  quickness  and  tact  in  discov- 
ering the  bias  and  disposition  of  the  House.  If-Althorp 
abstains  from  any  rough  opposition,  and  endeavors  to  restrain  . 
others,  upon  the  principle  of  giving  a  fair  trial  to  those  who 
may  have  taken  his  place  because  he  would  not  continue  to 
hold  it,  it  is  probable  that  the  majority  will  avail  themselves 
of  such  an  opportunity  for  avoiding  a  dissolution,  and  give  a 
sulky  and  suspicious  assent  to  the  measures  of  the  new  Min- 
istry, for  a  cordial  support  cannot  be  expected.  This,  however, 

1  [The  cant  name  given  at  the  time  to  John,  Lord  Althorp.] 


1834.]  INTERVIEWS.  261 

must  depend  upon  circumstances  which  are  still  in  nubibus. 
To-day  must,  in  all  probability,  decide  who  is  to  attempt  the 
task  of  forming  a  Government.  Stanley,  it  is  supposed,  if 
invited,  will  not  join  Peel,  at  least  not  at  present ;  all,  how- 
ever, is  speculation,  curiosity,  and  excitement. 

July  13th. — All  yesterday  nothing  was  done ;  the  King 
remains  very  quietly  at  Windsor,  still  in  communication  with 
Melbourne,  and  I  believe  with  the  Chancellor.  He  declines 
talking  upon  the  present  state  of  affairs  to  anybody. 
What  he  wanted  was,  that  some  attempt  should  be  made 
toward  a  coalition,  but  this  the  remaining  Ministers  would 
not  consent  to.  Poulett  Thomson  called  on  me  at  my  office 
in  the  afternoon,  and  told  me  that  it  was  by  no  means  true 
that  Althorp  would  not  on  any  terms  take  the  Government; 
but  that  he  would  not  unless  he  had  carte  blanche,  in  which 
case  he  could  not  refuse  it;  if  he  did  refuse,  Thomson  added, 
that  everybody  ought  to  support  Peel  or  any  Tory  Govern- 
ment. He  is  convinced  that  if  Peel  took  the  Government 
he  would  be  driven  out  by  the  House  of  Commons  instanter, 
unless  he  could  show  that  he  had  done  so  in  consequence  of 
the  King  being  deserted  by  the  present  men.  I  afterward 
met  Mulgrave,  who  had  been  riding  with  Althorp,  who  told 
him  that  though  it  would  be  very  disagreeable  to  him  on 
every  account,  and  especially  as  regards  Lord  Grey,  he 
might  have  it  put  to  him  in  a  way  that  left  him  no 
option.  Lord  Grey  and  his  friends  and  family  think  that  he 
has  been  extremely  ill-used,  and  they  are  indignant  with  all 
the  actors  in  the  Littleton  affair,  and  only  burning  with 
desire  to  expose  those  who  are  still  concealed.  Charles  Grey 
talked  to  me  for  half  an  hour  in  the  lobby  of  the  Opera 
House  last  night,  and  said  that  Lord  Wellesley  ought  to 
disclose  all  that  was  still  secret  in  the  transaction,  and  pro- 
duce the  private  letters  he  had  received  from  England,  and 
by  which  his  opinions  and  advice  had  been  influenced. 
Such  letters  they  know  were  written,  and  they  believe  by 
the  Chancellor;  this  belief,  whether  it  turns  out  to  be  true 
or  false,  is,  I  perceive,  very  general.  It  is  inconceivable  what 
a  reputation  that  man  has,  and  how  universally  he  is  dis- 
trusted, and  despised  as  much  as  anybody  with  such  great 
abilities  can  be.  His  political  character  is  about  on  a  par 
with  Whittle  Harvey's  moral  character;  his  insolence  and 
swaggering,  bullying  tone  in  the  House  of  Lords  have 
excited  as  much  disgust  out  of  the  House  as  they  have  given 


262  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

offense  in  it,  and  the  only  excuse  for  him  is — what  many 
people  believe — that  there  is  a  taint  of  madness  about  him. 
The  other  night,  in  his  reply  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  vio- 
lent and  foolish  speech,  lie  chose  to  turn  upon  Lord  Rolle,  a 
very  old  man  and  a  choleric,  hard-bitten  old  Tory.  Rolle  was 
greatly  exasperated,  and  after  he  sat  down  went  up  to  him 
on  the  Woolsack  and  said,  "  My  Lord,  I  wish  you  to  know 
that  I  have  the  greatest  contempt  for  you  both  in  this  House 
and  out  of  it." 

While  Lord  Grey  had  been  very  indignant  against  the 
plotters  in  his  Cabinet  he  has  been  sorely  wounded  by 
the  seceders,  or  rather  by  the  chief  of  them,  Stanley ;  but 
this  has  been  all  made  up  in  a  way  soothing  enough  to 
his  feelings,  but  not  advantageous,  though  not  discreditable, 
to  Stanley.  The  latter  wrote  a  letter  to  Lord  Grey  ex- 
pressing his  deep  regret  at  having  said  any  thing  to  oft'end 
him,  disclaiming  the  slightest  intention  of  the  kind,  pouring 
forth  the  warmest  protestations  of  gratitude,  veneration, 
and  attachment  to  him,  and  finishing  by  an  assurance  that 
he  would  take  office  under  nobody  else.  After  the  gross 
attack  he  made  it  is  honorable  in  him  to  make  such  an 
apology,  but  it  only  enhances  the  folly  of  his  former  conduct 
to  find  himself  placed  under  the  necessity  of  writing  a  peni- 
tential letter.  Lord  Grey  replied  in  corresponding  terms, 
and  he  says  they  shall  be  as  good  friends  again  as  ever,  and 
that  Stanley's  speech  shall  henceforward  be  forgotten  ;  but  it 
will  be  very  long  before  the  effect  produced  by  it  will  be 
forgotten,  or  that  the  recollection  of  it  will  cease  to  have 
an  influence  on  Stanley's  reputation  and  prospects.  His 
especial  friends,  the  other  seceders,  were  as  much  annoyed 
at  it  as  anybody ;  and  the  Duchess  of  Richmond  told  me 
that  her  husband  regretted  it  very  bitterly.  It  is  but  jus- 
tice to  Richmond  to  own  that  he  has  acted  a  fair,  open,  and 
manly  part  in  this  business,  and  has  satisfied  all  parties. 
Lord  Grey  was  not  annoyed  at  what  passed  between  them  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  and  their  friendship  has  never  suffered 
any  interruption. 

July  15th. — This  interval  of  feverish  anxiety  has  ended 
by  the  formation  of  the  Administration  being  intrusted  to 
Lord  Melbourne.  He  refused  to  undertake  it  unless  Al thorp 
could  stay  Avith  him.  The  King  wanted  Lord  Grey  to  come 
back,  and  spoke  to  Taylor  about  it,  but  he  told  him  it  was  out 
of  the  question,  and  therefore  the  King  did  not  propose  it,  but 


1834.]  DUNCANNON   SECRETARY   OF  STATE.  263 

he  has  constantly  written  to  him  in  the  most  flattering  terms, 
and  desired  he  might  be  consulted  in  every  step  of  these 
proceedings.  Lord  Grey  has  acted  very  cordially  toward 
Melbourne,  and  pressed  Althorp  so  earnestly  to  stay  that  he 
has  consented,  and  last  night  the  announcements  were  made 
to  the  two  Houses.  The  Tories  (the  High  and  foolish)  are 
down  in  the  mouth,  but  Peel  is  himself  well  content  not  to 
have  been  mixed  up  in  the  concern.  The  present  conjecture 
is  that  Abercromby  will  go  to  the  Home  Office  and  Durham 
to  Ireland.  Nobody  thinks  the  Government  will  last  long, 
and  everybody  "  wonders  "  how  Melbourne  will  do  it.  He 
is  certainly  a  queer  fellow  to  be  Prime  Minister,  and  he 
and  Brougham  are  two  wild  chaps  to  have  the  destinies  of 
this  country  in  their  hands.  I  should  not  be  surprised  if 
Melbourne  was  to  rouse  his  dormant  energies  and  be  excited 
by  the  greatness  of  his  position  to  display  the  vigor  and 
decision  in  which  he  is  not  deficient.  Unfortunately  his 
reputation  is  not  particularly  good ;  he  is  considered  lax  in 
morals,  indifferent  in  religion,  and  very  loose  and  pliant  in 
politics.  He  is  supposed  to  have  consented  to  measures  of 
which  he  disapproved  because  it  suited  his  ease  and  conven- 
ience to  do  so,  and  because  he  was  actuated  by  no  strong 
political  principles  or  opinions. 

July  Ylth. — Yesterday  it  was  announced  that  Duncannon 
is  to  be  Secretary  of  State  and  called  to  the  House  of  Peers ; 
Hobhouse  in  his  place  and  in  the  Cabinet,  and  to  stand  for 
Nottingham.  This  completes  the  concern ;  Duucannon  Sec- 
retary of  State !  Who  could  ever  have  thought  of  him  in 
such  a  station  ?  His  proper  element  seems  to  be  the  House 
of  Commons,  where  he  was  a  bustling,  zealous  partisan  and  a 
very  good  whipper-in  ;  but  he  cannot  speak  at  all,  and  though 
a  tolerably  candid  talker,  his  capacity  is  slender ;  he  has  no 
pretensions  of  any  sort  to  a  high  office,  and  nothing  but  pecul- 
iar circumstances  could  put  him  in  one ;  but  the  difficulty  has 
been  how  to  deal  with  Durham,  for  the  majority  of  the  Cabi- 
net were  decided  upon  having  nothing  to  do  with  him, 
although  there  were  some  few  who  wanted  to  take  him  in. 
By  I  know  not  what  process  of  reasoning  they  arrived  at  the 
conclusion  that  Duncannon's  elevation  was  the  only  solution 
of  this  difficulty,  but  so  it  is,  for  I  believe  he  would  have  pre- 
ferred to  stay  in  his  old  place.  They  are  all  in  raptures  with 
the  King,  and  with  his  straightforward  dealing  on  this  occa- 
sion. In  the  first  instance  he  desired  Melbourne  to  write  to 


#04  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

the  Duke,  Peel,  and  Stanley,  stating  his  wish  that  an  Admin- 
istration should  he  formed  upon  a  wide  and  comprehensive 
plan.  He  wrote  accordingly  to  each,  and  with  his  letters  he 
sent  copies  of  his  own  letter  to  the  King,  in  which  he  gave  his 
opinion  that  the  formation  of  such  a  Government  was  impos- 
sible. The  Duke  and  Peel  each  replied,  with  expressions  of 
duty,  to  his  Majesty,  that  they  agreed  with  Lord  Melbourne, 
but  did  not  see  any  necessity  for  giving  reasons  for  their 
opinions.  The  King,  however,  desired  to  have  their  reasons, 
which  have  since  been  sent  to  him  by  them.  Stanley  wrote  a 
long  letter,  with  a  peremptory  refusal  to  form  part  of  any 
such  Government.  He  appears  anxious  to  pacify  the  Whigs 
by  disclaiming  any  intention  of  connecting  himself  with  the 
Tories.  Though  all  the  Grey  family  are  very  indignant,  and 
by  no  means  silent,  at  the  way  the  Earl  has  been  treated,  he 
has  behaved  with  great  temper  and  forbearance,  and  has  lent 
his  old  colleagues  his  cordial  assistance  in  patching  up  the 
broken  concern. 

July  V^th. — Two  angry  debates  in  the  Lords  last  night 
and  the  night  before ;  I  was  present  at  the  last,  but  not  at  the 
first.  On  Thursday  Lord  Wicklow  made  a  virulent  attack  on 
the  Government;  the  Dake  of  Buckingham  was  coarse,  the 
Chancellor  rabid,  and  a  disgraceful  scene  of  confusion  and 
disorder  arose.  Melbourne  made  his  first  speech,  declara- 
tion, and  explanation,  and  is  thought  to  have  done  it  very 
well — a  good  beginning.  Last  night  Wharncliffe  moved  for 
the  production  of  Lord  Wellesley's  letter,  by  which  the 
opinion  of  the  Cabinet  had  been  shaken  about  the  Coercion 
Bill.  Lord  Grey  made  a  very  handsome  speech  indeed, 
throwing  his  shield  over  his  old  colleagues,  declaring  he 
neither  complained  nor  had  he  been  ill-used,  and  entreated 
that  the  new  Government  might  be  fairly  tried,  and  not  em- 
barrassed without  cause  in  the  outset.  It  was  certainly  the 
speech  of  a  thorough  gentleman,  but  the  case  is  after  all  a  bad 
one.  The  dates  show  what  must  have  happened.  It  was  on 
the  20th  of  June  that  Mr.  Littleton  told  O'Connell  there  was  a 
discussion  going  on  in  the  Cabinet,  and  that  the  Coercion  Bill 
was  not  yet.  settled.  Now  on  the  20th  of  June  it  was  settled, 
but  on  the  23d  of  June  came  Lord  Wellesley's  letter,  which 
unsettled  it.1  It  is  clear,  then,  that  a  communication  was  made 

1  [This  again  is  not  accurate.  It  was  on  the  23d  of  June,  after  the  arrival 
of  Lord  Wellesley's  letter,  that  Mr.  Littleton  saw  O'Connell.  The  question 
was  still  under  discussion  on  that  day,  and  the  opinions  of  different  members 


1834]  O'CONXELL  AND   THE   COERCION   BILL.  2G5 

to  Lord  Wellesley  which  it  was  confidently  expected  would 
elicit  from  him  such  a  letter  as  would  enable  the  authors  of 
the  communication  to  revive  the  discussion,  and  Littleton,  not 
being1  able  to  wait  for  his  arrival,  anticipated  it,  and  told 
O'Connell  that  the  discussion  was  begun  before  the  cause  of 
it  was  in  operation.  There  certainly  never  was  a  more  com- 
plete underhand  intrigue  perpetrated  than  this,  and  although 
no  official  document,  or  demi-official,  will  now  be  produced  to 
reveal  the  name  of  the  prime  mover,  everybody's  finger  is 
pointed  at  Brougham,  and  the  young  Greys  make  no  secret 
of  their  conviction  that  he  is  the  man.  But  undoubtedly  the 
greatest  evil  resulting  from  the  proceedings  and  the  termina- 
tion of  them  (in  the  reconstruction  of  this  Government,  with 
its  additions,  and  the  alteration  of  the  Bill)  is  the  vast  in- 
crease which  must  be  made  to  the  power  and  authority  of 
O'Connell.  He  has  long  been  able  to  make  the  Irish  believe 
any  thing  he  pleases,  and  he  will  certainly  have  no  difficulty 
in  persuading  them  that  he  himself  has  brought  about  this 
state  of  things,  that  he  has  ousted  Lord  Grey,  introduced 
Duncannon  (who  of  all  the  Whigs  has  been  his  greatest 
friend),  and  expunged  the  obnoxious  clauses  from  the  Coer- 
cion Bill,  and  the  fact  is  that  all  this  is  not  very  far  from  the 
truth.  Between  his  dexterity  in  availing  himself  of  circum- 
stances and  his  betrayal  of  Littleton,  between  the  folly  of 
some  men  and  the  baseness  of  others,  he  has  appeared  the 
most  prominent  character  in  the  drama.  Even  now  I  cannot 
make  out  why  everybody  wished  the  Bill  to  be  thus  emascu- 
lated, for  there  would  have  been  no  difficulty  in  passing  it 
through  both  Houses.  To  the  surprise  of  everybody  Littleton 
is  suffered  to  keep  his  place,  probably  by  the  protection  of 
Althorp,  who  may  have  been. as  dogged  about  him  on  this  oc- 
casion as  he  was  about  the  Speakership,  and  as  he  is  con- 
sidered (on  account  of  his  character)  so  indispensable  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  of  course  he  can  make  his  own  terms.1 

of  the  Cabinet  were  much  divided.  Those  Ministers  (including  the  Chancellor) 
who  were  opposed  to  the  renewal  of  the  Coercion  Bill  in  its  integrity  wished  to 
secure  the  assent  of  Lord  Wellesley  to  their  views.  After  the  receipt  of  Lord 
Wellesley's  letter  of  the  21st  of  June  both  Lord  Melbourne  and  Lord  Althorp 
declared  that  "it  was  impossible  to  ask  Parliament  for  an  unconstitutional 
power  which  the  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland  had  been  led  to  disclaim."  (See 
*'  Ilatherton's  Memoir,"  p.  13.)  The  question  was  not  finally  settled  till  the 
Cabinet  of  the  29th  of  June.  Mr.  Littleton  had  been  distinctly  informed  by 
Lord  Althorp,  on  the  same  day  that  he  saw  O'Connell,  that  the  matter  was  not 
settled,  and  that  he  (Lord  Althorp)  would  resign  rather  than  allow  the  dis- 
puted clauses  to  form  part  of  the  new  Bill.] 

*  [This  was  so.    Lord  Althorp  positively  refused  to  hold  office  in  the  Mol- 


266  11EIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAI-.  XXIII. 

July  20th. — At  Court  yesterday  to  swear  in  Duncannon 
Secretary  of  State.  He  told  me  he  had  made  Stanley  1  (the 
man  they  call  Sir  Benjamin  Backbite,  and  familiarly  Ben)  his 
under-secretary,  telling  him  he  must  speak,  for  that  he  (Dun- 
cannon)  could  not.  Auckland  and  Duncannon  will  not  cer- 
tainly add  mnch  to  the  oratorical  splendor  of  the  Government. 
Ellice  was  there,  and  told  me  about  a  grand  case  the  Tories 
have  got  hold  of  against  him,  growing  out  of  Lord  Western's 
evidence  in  Whittle  Harvey's  Committee.  It  there  came  out 
that  Western  had  applied  to  Ellice,  then  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  (at  the  time  of  the  great  Reform  election),  for  money 
to  assist  at  the  Colchester  election,  and  he  sent  £500.  They 
want  to  make  out  that  this  was  public  money,  but  they  won't 
catch  him.  He  says  several  individuals  subscribed  large  sums, 
which  were  placed  at  his  disposal  to  be  employed  to  the  best 
advantage  for  the  cause.  He  will  get  out  of  it.  He  talked 
of  the  Government,  said  it  was  a  great  error  to  suppose  it  was 
inclined  to  movement  principles,  and  that  in  point  of  fact  there 
was  very  little  difference,  except  on  Church  matters,  between 
Sir  Robert  Peel  and  himself,  that  there  never  was  so  good  a 
House  of  Commons  for  the  Government,  that  in  all  this  mess — 
for  mess  it  was — the  Tories  could  not  succeed  in  getting  up  a 
feeling  or  a  prejudice  against  the  Government,  and  it  was 
clear  they  were  utterly  powerless  there,  that  the  House  only 
required  to  be  a  little  cajoled,  and  was  easily  led ;  the  word 
Reform  was  still  potent  there,  and  had  only  to  be  uttered  on 
occasions  to  bring  the  majority  round  when  they  began  to 
show  a  refractory  disposition. 

July  %lst. — The  Chancellor  and  the  Hollands  urged  Lord 
Grey  to  take  the  Privy  Seal.  This  Sefton  told  me  as  a  great 
secret  yesterday,  but  the  indignation  of  the  Greys  burst 
through  all  restraint,  and  they  told  it  "  A  qui  voulait  les 
entendre,"  with  every  expression  of  rage  and  disgust,  "  adding 
insult  to  injury."  Lord  Grey  was  more  philosophical,  and 
rather  smiled  at  the  proposition,  but  he  did  not  repress  the 
pious  resentment  of  his  children.  The  Grey  women  would 
murder  the  Chancellor  if  they  cotild.  It  certainly  was  a 

bourne  Government,  unless  Mr.  Littleton  could  be  prevailed  upon  to  resume  or 
retain  his  office  as  Irish  Secretary.  Nothing  could  be  more  honorable  to  both 
parties  than  this  conduct  of  Lord  Althorp  ;  but  it  was  due  to  the  fact  that  he 
had  himself  been  a  party  to  the  communication  made  by  Mr.  Littleton  to 
O'Connell,  and  that  he  knew  Mr.  Littleton  had  been  exposed  to  more  censure 
than  he  deserved.] 

1  [Afterward  Lord  Stanley  of  Aldcrney.] 


1834.]  LORD   MELBOURNE'S  ADMINISTRATION.  267 

curious  suggestion.  The  Hollands  think  of  nothing  on  earth 
but  how  they  may  best  keep  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  and 
they  fancied  Lord  Grey's  holding  the  Privy  Seal  might  be  of 
service  to  the  Government,  and  if  they  could  make  him  com- 
mit such  a  bassesse,  so  much  the  better.  It  is  not  always 
easy  to  discover  the  Chancellor's  motives,  but,  as  he  is  as  vin- 
dictive as  he  i-s  false  and  tricking,  he  perhaps  took  this  oppor- 
tunity of  revenging  himself  for  the  old  offer  of  the  Attorney- 
Generalship,  which  he  has  never  forgiven.1 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

Taylor's  "  Philip  van  Artevelde  " — Goodwood — Earl  Bathurst's  Death — Death  of  Mrs. 
Arbuthnot — Overtures  to  O'Connell — Irish  Tithe  Bill — Theodore  Hook's  Improvisation 
— Lord  Westmeath's  Case  in  the  Privy  Council — First  Council  of  Lord  Melbourne's 
Government  and  Prorogation — Brougham's  Vagaries — Lord  Durham's  Exclusion — 
The  Edinburgh  Dinner — Windsor  and  Meiningen — Spencer  Perceval — Lord  Grey's 
Eetirement — The  Westmeath  Case  again — The  Queen's  Eeturn — Melbourne  and  Tom 
Young — Holland  House — Reflections— Conversation  on  the  Poets— Miscellaneous  Chat 
— Lord  Melbourne's  Literary  Attainments — Lord  Holland's  Anecdotes  of  Great  Orators 
— Execution  of  Charles  I. — Lord  Melbourne's  Opinion  of  Henry  VIII. — The  Times  at- 
tacks Lord  Brougham — His  Tour  in  Scotland — His  Unpopularity — Cowper's  Secret — 
Canning  on  Reform— Lord  Melbourne  on  Palmerston  and  Brougham — Canning  and 
Brougham  in  1827 — Senior — Lord  Melbourne  and  the  Benthamites — His  Theology — 
Spanish  Eloquence — The  Harley  Papers — The  Turf— Death  of  Lord  Spencer — The 
Westmeath  Case  heard— Law  Appointments — Bickersteth— Louis  Philippe's  Position. 

July  23c?. — Brougham  spoke  for  four  hours  on  the  Poor 
Law  Bill  on  Monday,  and  made  a  luminous  speech ;  Alvanley, 
to  people's  amusement,  spoke,  and  against  the  Bill ;  he  spoke 
tolerably  well — a  grave  speech,  and  got  compliments. 

1  [This  view  of  the  case  is  certainly  unjust  to  Lord  Brougham,  •«  ho  had 
more  respect  and  regard  for  Lord  Grey  than  for  any  other  statesman  of  the 
time,  as  his  correspondence  with  the  Earl,  now  recently  published  in  Brough- 
am's "  Posthumous  Memoirs,"  sufficiently  proven.] 

[The  first  Administration  of  Lord  Melbourne  was  thus  constituted : 

First  Lord  of  the  Treasury        .        .        .    Viscount  Melbourne. 

Lord  Chancellor. Lord  Brougham. 

Lord  President Marquis  of  Lansdowne. 

Home  Secretary      ...        .        .        .        Viscount  Duncannon. 

Foreign  Secretary Viscount  Palmerston. 

Colonial  Secretary         ....         Mr.  Spring  Rice. 

Chancellor  of  thc'Exchequer     .        .        .    Viscount  Althorp. 

Admiralty Lord  Auckland. 

Board  of  Control Mr.  Charles  Grant. 

Board  of  Trade Mr,  Poulett  Thomson. 

Duchy  of  Lancaster Lord  Holland. 

Paymaster  of  the  Forces         .        .        .        Lord  John  Russell. 

Secretary  at  War Mr.  Edward  Ellice. 

Lord  Pnvy  Seal Earl  of  Mulgrave. 

Postmaster-General Marquis  of  Conynghaaa. 

Irish  Secretary Mr.  Littleton.  I  " 


268  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CiiAP.  XXIV. 

July  2±th.— Read  Reeve's  "History  of  English  Law," 
finished  Henry  Taylor's  "  Van  Artevelde,"  and  read  250  lines 
of  Virgil.  "  Philip  van  Artevelde  "  is  a  poem  of  extraordinary 
merit,  and  the  offspring  of  a  vigorous  and  independent  mind. 
The  author,  who  is  my  particular  friend,  and  for  whom  I 
have  a  sincere  regard  and  a  great  admiration,  took  his  work 
to  Murray,  who  gave  it  to  Lockhart  to  read.  Lockhart 
advised  Murray  not  to  publish  it,  at  least  at  his  own  risk, 
but  he  bestowed  great  encomiums  on  the  work,  and  urged 
Taylor  to  publish  it  himself.  He  did  so,  without  much  expec- 
tation that  it  would  be  popular,  and  has  been  agreeably  sur- 
prised to  find  that  in  a  short  space  of  time  a  second  edition 
is  called  for.  With  the  vivacity  of  a  sanguine  disposition, 
.and  a  confidence  in  the  sterling  merits  of  his  poem,  he  now 
believes  that  edition  will  follow  edition  like  wave  upon  wave, 
in  which  I  fear  he  will  be  disappointed.  [When  the  first 
edition  was  all  sold,  and  a  second  called  for,  he  made  up  his 
account  with  his  publisher,  and  the  balance  was  £37  against 
him. — November  29tk,~\ 

August  5th. — At  Goodwood  for  the  races,  so  read  nothing 
except  half  of  Jacquemont's  Letters  and  a  little  book  I  picked 
up,  the  "  History  of  the  Grand  Vizier  Coprogli  ; "  called  to 
town  on  Wednesday  last  for  a  Council,  to  swear  in  Mulgrave 
Privy  Seal ;  went  to  Petworth  on  my  way  for  one  night. 
Stanley  was  at  Goodwood,  absorbed  in  racing,  billiards,  and 
what  not ;  nobody  would  have  guessed  that  all  this  rough  and 
rustic  gayety  covered  ambition,  eloquence,  and  powers  which 
must  make  him  one  of  the  most  eminent  men,  though  his 
reputation  is  not  what  it  was. 

While  I  was  there  news  came  of  Lord  Bathurst's  death. 
He  was  a  very  amiable  man  and  with  a  good  understanding-, 
though  his  talents  were  far  from  brilliant,  a  High  Church- 
man and  a  High  Tory,  but  a  cool  politician,  a  bad  speaker, 
a  good  writer,  greatly  averse  to  changes,  but  unwillingly 
acquiescing  in  many.  He  was  nervous  and  reserved,  with  a 
good  deal  of  humor,  and  habitually  a  jester.  His  conversa- 
tion was  generally  a  series  of  jokes,  and  he  rarely  discussed 
any  subject  but  in  a  ludicrous  vein.  His  conduct  to  Napoleon 
justly  incurred  odium,  for  although  he  was  only  one  of  many, 
he  was  the  Minister  through  whom  the  orders  of  Government 
passed,  and  he  suffered  the  principal  share  of  the  reproach 
which  was  thrown  upon  the  Cabinet  for  their  rude  and 
barbarous  treatment  of  the  Emperor  at  St.  Helena.  He  had 


1834.]  LORD   BATHURST.  269 

not  a  lively  imagination,  and  his  feelings  were  not  excited 
by  the  comtemplation  of  such  a  striking  example  of  fallen 
greatness.  I  was  Lord  Bathurst's  private  secretary  for 
several  years,  but  so  far  from  feeling  any  obligation  to  him, 
I  always  consider  his  mistaken  kindness  in  giving  me  that 
post  as  the  source  of  all  my  misfortunes  and  the  cause  of 
my  present  condition.  He  never  thought  fit  to  employ  me, 
never  associated  me  with  the  interests  and  the  business  of 
his  office,  and  consequently  abandoned  me  at  the  age  of 
eighteen  to  that  life  of  idleness  and  dissipation  from  which 
I  might  have  been  saved  had  he  felt  that  my  future  prospects 
in  life,  my  character  and  talents,  depended  in  great  measure 
upon  the  direction  which  was  at  that  moment  given  to  my 
mind.  He  would  probably  have  made  me  a  Tory  (which  I 
should  hardly  have  remained),  but  I  should  have  become  a 
man  of  business,  and  of  the  antagonist  tastes  which  divided 
my  mind  that  for  literature  and  employment  would  have  got 
the  better  of  that  for  amusement  and  idleness,  instead,  as 
unfortunately  happened,  of  the  latter  prevailing  over  he 
former.  Though  I  knew  Lord  Bathurst  so  long,  and  was  his 
private  secretary  for  some  years,  and  his  family  and  mine 
have  always  been  so  intimate,  I  had  no  real  intimacy  with 
him.  From  what  I  have  learned  from  others  I  am  disposed 
to  rate  his  abilities  more  highly  than  the  world  has  done. 
He  was  the  friend  and  devoted  admirer  of  Pitt,  and  a  regular 
Tory  of  the  old  school,  who  felt  that  evil  days  had  come  upon 
him  in  his  old  age.  When  he  left  office  with  the  Duke  of 
Wellington  he  resolved  upon  finally  quitting  public  life,  and 
let  what  might  happen,  never  to  take  office  again.  On  coming 
to  town  yesterday  I  heard  of  another  death — Mrs.  Arbuthnot, 
after  a  short  illness.  The  Duke  of  Wellington,  with  whom 
she  had  lived  in  the  most  intimate  relations  for  many  years, 
evinced  a  good  deal  of  f eeling,  but  he  is  accused  of  insensbility 
because  he  had  the  good  taste  and  sense  to  smooth  his  brow 
and  go  to  the  House  of  Lords  with  a  cheerful  aspect.  She 
was  not  a  clever  woman,  but  she  was  neither  dull  nor  deficient, 
and  very  prudent  and  silent. 

August  6th. — To  my  office,  then  to  the  House  of  Lords 
and  heard  a  discussion  on  foreign  politics;  not  very  amusing; 
Melbourne  not  so  good  as  Grey  would  have  been.  The  Duke 
spoke,  but  he  looked  very  ill.  Walked  from  the  House  with 
Lord  Carnarvon,  who  is  an  intelligent  man,  but  a  great 
alarmist  and  very  desponding ;  he  thinks  we  are  going  on 


270  REIGN  OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIV 

step  by  step  to  an  utter  subversion  of  all  interests  and  insti- 
tutions. 

August  1th. — Yesterday  I  met  the  Duke  of  Wellington, 
who  talked  to  me  of  Mrs.  Arbuthnot ;  I  walked  away  from 
my  office  with  Duncannon,  who  told  me  that  O'Connell's 
amendment  in  the  Tithe  Bill  met  with  his  concurrence  (and 
in  fact,  though  he  did  not  exactly  say  as  much,  his  conni- 
vance). He  said  he  was  sure  this  Bill  was  the  only  chance 
for  the  Irish  Church,  which  he  was  very  anxious  to  save  and 
support ;  expressed  great  anxiety  to  make  it  up  with  O'Con- 
nell  by  giving  him  a  great  judicial  situation,  is  convinced  he 
is  sincere  (at  the  moment)  in  all  he  says,  but  that  he  is  so 
vain  and  excitable  and  ambitious  that  when  he  returns  to  Ire- 
land he  forgets  all  he  has  promised  or  professed ;  the  demon 
of  agitation  regains  the  ascendant,  and  he  bursts  into  all  those 
excesses  which  have  made  him  so  odious  and  formidable  ;  but 
there  is  no  chance  of  any  arrangement  with  him,  for  the  ma- 
jority of  the  Government  would  not  hear  of  it.  I  dined  at 
the  "  Travelers  ;  "  walked  to  a  fire  in  Edward  Street,  where  I 
amused  myself  with  the  strange  figures  and  groups,  the  glare, 
bustle,  and  noise.  •  There  was  Duncannon  again,  a  Secretary 
of  State  jostling  and  jostled  in  the  mob. 

August  V&th. — On  Saturday  to  Hillingdon,  and  back  yes- 
terday ;  passed  the  night  at  the  House  of  Lords,  to  hear  the 
debate  on  the  Irish  Tithe  Bill.1  At  a  meeting  at  Apsley 
House  the  Tory  Lords  came  to  a  unanimous  resolution  to 
throw  out  the  Bill,  and  at  one  or  two  meetings  at  Lambeth 
the  bishops  agreed  to  do  the  same.  The  debate  was  heavy  ; 
Melbourne  very  unlike  Lord  Grey,  whose  forte  was  leading 
the  House  of  Lords  and  making  speeches  on  such  occasions. 
Ellenborough  spoke  the  best,  I  think.  I  hardly  ever  heard 
such  unbroken  fluency,  and  a  good  deal  of  stujf,  too,  in  his 
speech.  Ellice  and  Spring  Rice  both  told  me  that  this  deci- 
sion was  the  most  fatal  and  most  important  that  had  occurred 
for  years  ;  the  latter  said  that  no  tithe  would  be  paid,  but  that 
there  would  be  no  active  resistance.  Such  tithe  property  as 
could  be  seized  would  not  be  sold,  because  there  would  be  no 
purchasers  for  it.  One  thing  is  clear  to  me,  that  those  Tories 
who  are  always  bellowing  "  revolution  "  and  "  spoliation,"  and 
who  talk  of  the  gradual  subversion  of  every  institution  and 
the  imminent  peril  in  which  all  our  establishments  are  placed, 

1  [The  Irish  Tithe  Bill  -was  thrown  out  by  the  House  of  Lords  by  139  to 
122.] 


1834.]  THE   IRISH  TITHE   BILL.  271 

do  not  really  believe  one  word  of  what  they  say,  and,  instead 
of  being  oppressed  with  fear,  they  are  buoyed  up  with  delu- 
sive confidence  and  courage ;  for  if  they  did  indeed  believe 
that  the  Church — the  Church  of  Ireland  especially — was  in 
danger,  and  that  its  preservation  was  the  one  paramount  de- 
sideratum, they  would  gladly  avert,  as  far  as  they  might,  that 
danger  by  a  compromise  involving  a  very  small  (if  any)  sacri- 
fice of  principle,  and  which  would  secure  to  the  Irish  clergy, 
as  far  as  human  prudence,  legislative  sanction,  and  the  au- 
thority of  law  can  secure  it,  a  permanent  and  a  competent  pro- 
vision, free  from  the  danger  and  the  odium  which  have  for  a 
long  time  past  embittered  the  existence  of  every  clergyman  in 
the  country.  It  is  a  curious  speculation  to  see  what  the  effect 
will  be  of  this  vote  practically  in  Ireland  on  the  condition  of 
the  clergy,  and  upon  public  opinion  here. 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  why  the  Lords  did  not  alter 
the  Bill  in  Committee  and  restore  it  to  its  original  state,  that 
which  Ellenborough  said  he  would  not  have  opposed,  and 
which  had  been  already  sanctioned  by  a  great  majority  of  the 
House  of  Commons  upon  the  report  of  a  Committee.  If  they 
had  done  this,  either  the  Bill  must  have  passed  in  this  less 
obnoxious  shape  or  the  odium  of  its  rejection  would  have  been 
thrown  upon  the  Commons,  and  the  Lords  would  undoubtedly 
have  had  an  excellent  case  to  present  to  the  country.  But  if 
there  is  a  wall  they  are  sure  to  run  their  heads  against  it,  and 
if  there  is  none  they  build  one  up  for  the  purpose.  What  puz- 
zles me  most  is  the  opposition  of  the  clergy ;  they  are  the 
parties  most  immediately  and  most  deeply  interested  in  this 
Bill,  and  yet  the  great  majority  of  them  appear  to  be  opposed 
tot  is  viribus  to  it. 

August  13th. — Dined  at  Roehampton  yesterday  with  Far- 
quhar.  Mrs.  Norton  and  Mrs.  Blackwood  and  Theodore 
Hook  dined  there  among  others.  After  dinner  he  displayed 
his  extraordinary  talent  of  improvisation,  which  I  had  never 
heard  but  once  before,  and  then  he  happened  not  to  be  in  the 
vein.  Last  night  he  was  very  brilliant.  Each  lady  gave  him 
a  subject,  such  as  the  "  Goodwood  Cup,"  the  "  Tithe  Bill ; " 
one  "  could  not  think  of  any  thing,"  when  he  dashed  off  and 
sang  stanzas  innumerable,  very  droll,  with  ingenious  rhymes 
and  excellent  hits,  "his  eye  begetting  occasion  for  his  excel- 
lent wit,"  for  at  every  word  of  interruption  or  admiration, 
every  look  or  motion,  he  indulged  in  a  digression,  always  com- 
ing back  to  one  of  the  themes  imposed  upon  him.  It  is  a  tour 


272  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [Ciup.  XXIV. 

deforce,  in  which  I  believe  he  stands  alone,  and  it  is  certainly 
wonderfully  well  worth  hearing  and  uncommonly  amusing1. 

August  14Z/i. — Yesterday  there   was  a  bother  with  the 
Chancellor  about  Lord  Westmeath's  case  pending  before  the 
Privy  Council.1     He  took  it  into  his  head  (probably  having 
been  got  at  by  Lady  Westmeath  or  some  of  her  friends)  to 
have  it  decided  forthwith,  and  sent  to  desire  a  Committee 
might  be  convened.     Westmeath's  counsel  was  out  of  town  ; 
Follett,  whom  he  relies  on,  is  on  the  Northern  Circuit,  but  his 
other  counsel  is  to  be  had,  being  at  Chiselhurst.     Accordingly 
the  Chancellor  desired  that  the  case  might  stand  over  from 
Thursday,  the  day  he  first  appointed  it  (giving  only  two  days' 
notice),  to  Monday,  and  that  it  should  be  notified  to  the  par- 
ties that  if  the}'  did  not  then  appear  the  case  should  go  on 
without  them.     Westmeath  came  to  me  in  a  frenzy  of  rage, 
and  said  the  Chancellor  was  the  greatest  of  villains,  and  so  he 
would  tell  him  in  the  House  of  Lords  or  in  the  Privy  Council. 
I  begged  him  to  hold  his  tongue,  and  I  would  speak  to  the 
Chancellor.     So  I  went  to  the  House  of  Lords  where  he  was 
sitting,  and  told  Lemarchant  what  had  passed,  and  that  the 
case  ought  not  to  be  thus  hurried  on.     He  thanked  me  very 
much,    and    said   he   would  go  to  Brougham ;  but   he  soon 
returned,  and  said  that  the  Chancellor  would  hear  nothing-, 
and  would  have  the  case  brought  on,  and  he  therefore  advised 
me  not  to  give  myself  any  further  concern  in  it,  and  to  leave 
him  and  Westmeath  to  settle  it  as  they  might.     In  the  mean 
time  Westmeath  went  down  to  the  House  of  Lords,  and  after 
speaking  to  Wynford,   whom  the  Chancellor  had  asked  to 
attend  (as  he  learned  from  me),  was  going  to  get  up  in  the 
House  of  Lords  and  attack  him,  and  was  only  prevented  by 
Wynford  dragging  him  down  by  the  tail  of  his  coat.     I  had 
already  spoken  to  Wynford,  and  I  afterward  spoke  to  Lord 
Lansdowne,  telling  them  that  the  case  ought  not  to  be  hurried 
on  in  this  peremptory  way,  and  I  persuaded  Lord  Lansdowne 
to  set  his  face  against  it.     However,  in  the  mean  time  Wyn- 
ford had  urged  the  Chancellor  to  put  it  off,  and  not  exasperate 
that  madman,  who  would  say  or  do  something  violent ;  and 
whether  from  reason  or  fear,  he  prevailed  on  him.     Wynford 
told  me  that  Brougham  is  undoubtedly  mad,  and  so  I  really 

1  [The  appellate  jurisdiction  in  causes  matrimonial  was  vested  at  this  time 
in  the  King  in  Council.  The  case  of  Westmeath  vs.  Westmeath,  which  was  a 
suit  for  a  separation  and  a  question  of  alimony,  came  up  on  appeal  from  the 
(Jourt  of  Arches.] 


1834]  THE  NEW  MINISTERS.  273 

believe  he  is.  While  I  was  in  the  House  of  Lords  Home  came 
in  from  the  Commons,  and  said  they  had  succeeded  in  stifling 
there  all  discussion  on  the  rejection  of  the  Tithe  Bill  by  the 
House  of  Lords.  Grattan  was  going  to  introduce  the  subject, 
but  was  prevailed  on  to  say  nothing,  and  to  some  questions 
put  by  Major  Beauclerck  Althorp  refused  to  reply. 

August  \§th. — At  a  Council  for  the  prorogation  ;  the  first 
time  I  have  seen  all  these  new  Ministers  in  a  bunch — a 
queer  set,  all  things  considered,  to  be  in  possession  of  the 
Palace.  Great  change  of  decoration.  Duncannon,  Ellice, 
Hobhouse,  Abercromby,  Mulgrave,  Auckland.  The  King, 
who  is  fond  of  meddling  in  the  Council  business  instead  of 
repeating  like  a  parrot  what  is  put  in  his  mouth,  made  a 
bother  and  confusion  about  a  fancy  matter,  and  I  was  forced 
to  go  to  Taylor  and  beg  him  to  explain  it  to  him,  which  I  did 
after  the  House  of  Lords.  The  King  was  quite  knocked  up 
and  easily  satisfied,  for  he  neither  desired  nor  could  have 
understood  any  explanations.  There  were  not  much  more 
than  half  a  dozen  Peers  in  the  House,  but  many  ladies. 
The  Chancellor  went  down,  and,  in  the  presence  of  the  ladies, 
attired  in  his  golden  robes  (and  especially  before  Mrs.  P.,  to 
whom  he  makes  love),  gave  a  judgment  in  some  case  in  which 
a  picture  of  Nell  Gwynne  was  concerned,  and  he  was  very 
proud  of  the  delicacy  of  his  judgment.  There  never  was  any 
thing  like  his  exhilaration  of  spirits  and  good-humor.  I  don't 
know  what  has  come  to  him,  except  it  be  that  he  has  scram- 
bled through  the  session  and  got  Lord  Grey  out.  He  wound 
up  in  the  House  of  Lords  by  the  introduction  of  his  Bill  for  a 
Judicial  Committee  there,  which  he  prefaced  by  a  speech  ex- 
hibiting his  own  judicial  acts,  and  undoubtedly  making  a 
capital  case  for  himself  as  to  diligence  and  dispatch  if  it  be 
all  true  (which  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt),  and  passing  a  great 
culogium  upon  the  House  of  Lords  as  an  institution,  and  draw- 
ing comparisons  between  that  House  and  the  House  of  Com- 
mons (much  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  latter),  expressing 
many  things  which  are  very  true  and  just  and  of  a  highly- 
conservative  tendency.  He  is  a  strange  being,  whom,  with  all 
his  inconsistencies,  one  cannot  but  admire;  so  varied  and 
prodigious  are  his  powers.  Much  more  are  these  lines  appli- 
cable to  him  than  to  his  predecessor  on  the  Woolsack: 

Great  wits  are  sure  to  madness  near  allied, 
And  thin  partitions  do  their  bounds  divide. 


374  REIGN   OF    WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

In  a  speech  the  other  night,  by  way  of  putting  his  audience 
on  a  wrong  scent  with  regard  to  his  correspondence  with  Lord 
Wellesley,  he  assured  them  that  that  correspondence  was  on 
any  subject  but  politics,  and  in  every  language  except  English ; 
and  Lemarchant  told  somebody  that  his  most  difficult  employ- 
ment was  to  correct  and  copy  out  the  Chancellor's  Greek  epi- 
grams to  Lord  Wellesley,  his  Greek  characters  being  worse 
than  his  English ;  while  Lord  Wellesley  sent  him  very  neatly- 
written  and  prettily-composed  epigrams  in  return.  I  should 
think  Lemarchant's  occupation  very  amusing,  and  that  no 
study  could  be  more  curious  than  that  of  the  mind  and  actions 
of  this  strange  specimen  of  humanity. 

August  19£/i. — At  Stoke  from  Saturday,  the  16th,  till  yes- 
terday; had  much  talk  with  old  Creevey  about  the  Chancellor. 
Sefton,  his  great  ally,  so  resented  his  conduct  to  Lord  Grey 
that  he  was  on  the  point  of  quarreling  with  him,  and  Brough- 
am miscalculated  so  far  as  to  chuckle  to  Sefton  himself  over 
the  improvement  of  his  own  position  in  the  new  order  of 
things,  telling  him  that  he  could  more  easily  manage  Melbourne 
than  he  could  Lord  Grey.  They  are  a  precious  set  with  their 
squabbles  and  tracasseries.  It  appears  that  they  very  well 
knew  what  Brougham  was  from  the  beginning,  especially 
Grey's  womankind,  who  warned  their  father  against  him,  but 
they  all  flattered  themselves  they  had  taken  the  sting  out  of 
him  by  getting  him  into  the  House  of  Lords.  Creevey  says 
that  Brougham  is  devoured  with  ambition,  and  what  he  wants 
is  to  be  Prime  Minister,  but  that  it  is  quite  impossible  he 
•should  forever  escape  detection  and  not  be  regularly  bloion  up 
sooner  or  later.  He  now  wants  to  appear  on  good  terms  with 
Lord  Grey,  and  there  is  a  dinner  at  Edinburgh  in  contemplation 
(at  which  Brougham  is  to  preside)  to  be  given  to  Lord  Grey. 
His  friends  want  him  not  to  go,  but  he  has  a  notion  that  the 
Scotch  have  behaved  so  well  to  him  that  he  ought  not  to 
refuse  the  invitation.  The  Chancellor  had  intended  to  go 
junketing  on  the  Rhine  with  Mrs.  P.,  and  this  project  was 
only  marred  by  his  discovering  that  he  could  not  leave  the 
country  without  putting  the  Great  Seal  in  commission  at  a 
cost  (to  himself)  of  £1,400.  This  was  a  larger  price  than  he 
was  disposed  to  pay  for  his  trip,  so  he  went  off  to  Brougham 
instead. 

On  Sunday  I  went  all  over  the  private  apartments  of 
Windsor  Castle,  and  walked  through  what  they  call  the  slopes 
to  the  Queen's  cottage;  all  very  splendid  and  luxurious.  In 


1834.]  SPENCER  PERCEVAL.  275 

the  gallery  there  is  a  model  of  a  wretched-looking  dog-hole  of 
a  building,  with  a  ruined  tower  beside  it.  I  asked  what  this 
was,  and  the  housekeeper  said,  "  The  Chateau  of  Meiningen ; " 
put  there,  I  suppose,  to  enhance  by  comparison  the  pleasure 
of  all  the  grandeur  which  surrounds  the  Queen,  for  it  would 
hardly  have  been  exhibited  as  a  philosophical  or  moral  me- 
mento of  her  humble  origin  and  the  low  fortune  from  which 
she  has  been  raised. 

As  I  rode  into  London  yesterday  morning  I  fell  in  with 
Spencer  Perceval,  and  got  off  my  horse  to  walk  into  town 
with  him.  He  talks  rationally  enough  till  he  gets  on  religious 
topics ;  he  asked  me  what  I  thought  of  the  state  of  affairs, 
and,  after  telling  him  my  opinion  of  the  condition  and  pros- 
pects of  the  Church,  I  asked  him  what  he  thought  of  them. 
He  said  he  agreed  with  me  as  to  the  status,  but  his  notion 
was  "  that  it  all  proceeded  from  a  departure  from  God,"  that 
ours  was  a  backsliding  Church,  and  that  God  had  forsaken  it, 
and  that  we  had  only  to  put  our  trust  in  Him,  and  rely  en- 
tirely on  Him,  and  He  would  work  out  the  salvation  of  His 
own.  We  parted  in  the  midst  of  the  discussion,  and  before  I 
had  any  time  to  get  from  him  any  explanation  of  the  course 
lie  would  recommend  to  those  who  govern  in  furtherance  of 
his  own  theocratical  principles. 

There  has  been  what  is  called  "  a  great  Protestant  meet- 
ing "  at  Dublin,  at  which  Winchelsea  was  introduced  to  the 
Irish  Orangemen  and  made  one  of  them.  It  was  great  in  one 
way,  for  there  were  a  great  many  fools,  who  talked  a  great 
deal  of  nonsense  and  evinced  a  disposition  to  do  a  great  deal 
of  mischief  if  they  can.  Winchelsea's  description  of  himself 
was  undoubtedly  true,  only  it  is  true  always  and  of  all  of 
them,  "that  his  feelings  were  so  excited  that  he  was  deprived 
of  what  little  intellect  he  possessed." 

August  2Gth. — On  Friday  to  Hillingdon,  Saturday  to 
Stoke ;  Lord  John  Russell,  Medem,  Dedel,  Tommy  Duncombe, 
D'Orsay.  Lord  John  and  I  walked  to  Bulstrode  on  Sunday ; 
talked  about  the  Chancellor  and  the  Government.  He  said 
that  Lord  Holland  was  struck  with  Brougham's  want  of  tact 
at  hearing  him  press  Lord  Grey  to  go  to  a  public  dinner  at 
Edinburgh  because  he  was  to  be  in  the  chair ;  that  Lord  Grey 
did  not  think  Brougham  had  been  engaged  db  initio  in  a 
plot  to  get  him  out.  Lord  John  talked  of  the  House  of  Lords, 
and  how  it  and  the  House  of  Commons  were  to  be  reunited. 
He  thinks  that  the  obstinacy  of  the  House  of  Lords  and  its 


276  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

Tory  spirit  are  attributable  solely  to  the  numerous  creations 
of  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years. 

Tommy  Buncombe  is  the  greatest  political  comedy  going, 
lie  is  engaged  in  a  mediation  between  the  master-builders  and 
the  operatives,  who  have  quarreled  about  the  unions,  and  an 
express  came  to  him  from  Cubitt  after  dinner. 

Sefton  told  me  that  Lord  Grey,  when  he  was  at  Windsor, 
had  a  long  conversation  with  the  King,  in  which  his  Majesty 
expressed  no  little  dissatisfaction  at  what  had  recently  oc- 
curred and  at  the  present  posture  of  his  affairs.  He  told  me 
that  Lord  Grey  certainly  would  not  have  continued  in  office 
under  any  circumstances  till  Parliament  met  again,  and  that, 
in  fact,  his  continual  propositions  to  retire  and  expressions  of 
consciousness  of  inability  and  unfitness  had  been  very  embar- 
rassing and  annoying  both  to  his  colleagues  and  the  King,  and 
that  the  latter  had  evidently  been  tired  out  by  them,  as  was 
proved  by  his  not  making  the  slightest  effort  to  induce  Lord 
Grey  to  remain  when  he  tendered  his  resignation.  Grey  acted 
very  handsomely  in  giving  his  proxy  to  Melbourne,  and  the 
reason  he  staid  away  from  the  House  of  Lords  during  the 
latter  days  of  the  session  was  that  he  was  afraid  of  being  com- 
pelled to  say  something  indicative  of  the  real  state  of  his  mind 
and  feelings  with  regard  to  past  occurrences. 

When  I  got  to  town  yesterday,  to  my  great  astonishment 
1  found  that  the  Vice-Chancellor  had  been  at  the  office  with 
a  peremptory  mandate  from  the  Chancellor  to  bring  on  the 
Westmeath  case  on  Friday  next,  sent  up  from  Brougham 
Hall.  In  my  absence  the  summonses  had  been  issued,  but  I 
desired  them  all  to  be  recalled,  and  the  Vice-Chan cellor  soon 
after  happening  to  call  on  me,  I  told  him  what  had  occurred 
before,  and  that  the  Lord  President  was  opposed  to  the 
cause  being  thus  hurried  on.  He  acquiesced,  and  wrote  to 
the  Chancellor  to  say  he  had  heard  from  me  that  it  could 
not  be ;  and  so  it  ended,  but  I  dare  say  the  Chancellor  will 
be  in  a  violent  rage,  which  I  rather  enjoy  than  not.1  It  is 
very  clear  that  he  intends  to  exercise  paramount  authority 
over  the  Judicial  Committee,  and  to  consider  every  thing 
connected  with  it  at  his  disposal.  When  first  he  had  the 
Privy  Council  Bill  drawn  up  by  one  of  his  devils,  he  in- 
tended to  create  a  new  tribunal,  of  which  he  should  be  the 

1  [In  addition  to  other  reasons,  which  are  obvious,  against  this  proceeding, 
it  would  have  been  an  unprecedented  thing  to  call  on  an  important  appeal  for 
ii earing  at  the  end  of  August,  in  the  midst  of  the  long  vacation.] 


1834.]  THE   QUEEN'S  RETURN.  277 

head,  and  though  he  was  obliged  to  give  up  his  original 
design,  he  still  considers  himself  entitled  to  deal  with  the 
Judicial  Committee  as  he  pleases.  If  the  Lord  President  had 
more  of  the  spirit  that  is  due  to  the  office  over  which  he  pre- 
sides, he  would  not  suffer  him  to  interfere,  and  I  am  resolved, 
if  I  can,  to  get  Lord  Lansdowne  to  assert  his  own  authority. 
The  Chancellor  has  promised  Sefton  that  when  Mr.  Black- 
burn, now  a  judge  at  the  Mauritius,  comes  home,  he  shall 
bo  made  a  Privy  Councilor  ;  that  Sir  Alexander  Johnston, 
who  now  attends  the  sittings  of  the  Council,  shall  be  dis- 
missed, and  Blackburn  invited  to  attend  instead  of  him, 
and  that  he  shall  have  £400  a  year  (which  by  the  Act  he 
may).  This,  if  it  takes  place,  will  be  one  of  the  grossest  and 
most  barefaced  jobs  that  ever  were  perpetrated  ;  but  I  think 
it  can  never  be.  What  makes  it  worse  is  that  Brougham 
introduced  this  clause  for  the  express  purpose  of  meeting 
Blackburn's  case  ;  so  he  told  Sefton,  but  I  suppose  it  means 
that  he  made  the  stipend  receivable  by  an  ex-judge  in  any 
colony,  when  the  pretext  for  it  was  the  power  of  obtaining 
the  assistance  of  Indian  judges.1 

September  ^th. — At  Court  yesterday.  The  King  came  to 
town  to  receive  the  address  of  the  City  on  the  Queen's 
return — the  most  ridiculous  address  I  ever  heard.  The 
Queen  was  too  ill  to  appear.  Her  visit  to  Germany  knocked 
her  up,  and  well  it  might,  considering  the  life  she  led — 
always  up  at  six  and  never  in  bed  till  twelve,  continual 
receptions  and  ceremonies.  Errol  told  me  she  showed  them 
her  old  bedroom  in  the  palace  (as  they  call  it)  at  Meiningen 
— a  hole  that  an  English  housemaid  would  think  it  a  hard- 
ship to  sleep  in. 

Stanley  (not  the  ex-Secretary,  but  the  in  Under-Secretary) 
told  me  last  night  an  anecdote  of  Melbourne  which  I  can 
very  easily  believe.  When  the  King  sent  for  him  he  told 
Young  "he  thought  it  a  damned  bore,  and  that  he  was  in 
many  minds  what  he  should  do — be  Minister  or  no."  Young 
said,  "  Why,  damn  it,  such  a  position  never  was  occupied  by 
any  Greek  or  Roman,  and,  if  it  only  lasts  two  months,  it  is 
well  worth  while  to  have  been  Prime  Minister  of  England." 
"  By  God,  that's  true,"  said  Melbourne  ;  "  I'll  go."  Young  is 

1  [No  colonial  judge  has  ever  been  appointed  to  one  of  the  assessorships  of 
the  Judicial  Committee,  except  Sir  Alexander  Johnston,  who  had  been  Chief- 
Justice  of  Ceylon ;  but  Sir  Alexander  refused  to  accept  the  stipend  (£400  a 
year)  attached  to  the  office,  and  never  did  receive  it.] 


278  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

his  private  secretary — a  vulgar,  familiar,  impudent  fellow, 
hut  of  indefatigable  industry  and  a  man  who  suits  Mel- 
bourne. His  taste  is  not  delicate  enough  to  be  shocked  at 
the  coarseness,  "while  his  indolence  is  accommodated  by  the 
industry,  of  his  secretary.  Then  Young l  knows  many  people, 
many  places,  and  many  things  ;  nobody  knows  whence  he 
comes  or  what  is  his  origin,  but  he  was  a  purser  in  the  navy, 
and  made  himself  useful  to  the  Duke  of  Devonshire  when  he 
went  to  Russia,  who  recommended  him  to  Melbourne.  He 
was  a  writer  and  runner  for  the  newspapers,  and  has  always 
been  an  active  citizen,  struggling  and  striving  to  get  on  in 
the  world,  and  probably  with  no  inconsiderable  dexterity. 
1  know  nothing  of  his  honesty,  for  or  against  it ;  he  seems 
good-humored,  but  vulgar  and  familiar.  Ben  Stanley  and  I 
were  talking  about  public  men,  and  agreed  that  by  far  the 
ablest  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  unscrupulous  of  them 
are  Brougham  and  O'Connell,  and  that  the  latter  is  probably 
on  the  whole  the  most  devoid  of  principle.  Their  characters 
and  adventures  would  be  worthy  of  a  Plutarch. 

September  5th. — At  Holland  House  yesterday,  where  I 
had  not  been  these  two  years.  Met  Lord  Holland  at  Court, 
who  made  me  go.  The  last  time  I  was  with  my  Lady  she  was 
so  mighty  uncivil  that  I  left  off  my  visits,  and  then  we  met 
again  as  if  there  had  been  no  interruption,  and  as  if  we  had 
been  living  together  constantly.  Spring  Rice  and  his  son, 
Melbourne,  and  Palmerston,  dined  there ;  Allen  was  at  Dulwich, 
but  came  in  the  evening,  and  so  did  Bobus  Smith.  There 
was  a  great  deal  of  very  good  talk,  anecdotes,  literary  criti- 
cism, and  what  not,  some  of  which  would  be  worth  remem- 
bering, though  hardly  sufficiently  striking  to  be  put  down, 
unless  as  forming  a  portion  of  a  whole  course  of  conversa- 
tions of  this  description.  A  vast  depression  came  over  my 
spirits,  though  I  was  amused,  and  I  don't  suppose  I  uttered  a 
dozen  words.  It  is  certainly  true  that  the  atmosphere  of 
Holland  House  is  often  oppressive,  but  that  was  not  it;  it 
was  a  painful  consciousness  of  my  own  deficiencies  and  of  my 
incapacity  to  take  a  fair  share  in  conversation  of  this  descrip- 
tion. I  felt  as  if  a  language  was  spoken  before  me  which  I 
understood,  but  not  enough  to  talk  in  it  myself.  There  was 
nothing  discussed  of  which  I  was  altogether  ignorant,  and 
when  the  merits  of  Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  and  Crabbe,  were 

1  [Tom  Young  was  commonly  known  as  "  Ubiquity  Young,"  because  you 
saw  him  in  every  place  you  miglit  happen  to  go  to.] 


1834.]  AT   HOLLAND   HOUSE.  279 

brought  into  comparison,  and  Lord  Holland  cut  jokes  upon 
Allen  for  his  enthusiastic  admiration  of  the  "De  Moribus 
Germanorum,"  it  was  not  that  I  had  not  read  the  poets  or  the 
historian,  but  that  I  felt  I  had  not  read  them  with  profit.  I 
have  not  that  familiarity  with  either  which  enables  me  to  dis- 
cuss their  merits,  and  a  painful  sense  came  over  me  of  the  dif- 
ference between  one  who  has  superficially  read  and  one  who 
has  studied,  one  who  has  laid  a  solid  foundation  in  early  youth, 
gathering  knowledge  as  he  advances  in  years,  all  the  stores  of 
his  mind  being  so  orderly  disposed  that  they  are  at  all  times 
available,  and  one  who  (as  I  have  done)  has  huddled  together 
a  quantity  of  loose  reading,  as  vanity,  curiosity,  and  not  sel- 
dom shame  impelled  ;  reading  thus  without  system,  more  to 
cover  the  deficiencies  of  ignorance  than  to  augment  the  stores 
of  knowledge,  loads  the  mind  with  an  undigested  mass  of 
matter,  which  proves,  when  wanted,  to  be  of  small  practical 
utility — in  short,  one  must  pay  for  the  follies  of  one's  youth. 
He  who  wastes  his  early  years  in  horse-racing  and  all  sorts 
of  idleness,  figuring  away  among  the  dissolute .  and  the  fool- 
ish, must  be  content  to  play  an  inferior  part  among  the  learned 
and  the  wise.  Some  instances  there  are  of  men  who  have 
united  both  characters,  but  it  will  be  found  that  these  have 
had  frequent  laborious  intervals,  that  though  they  may  have 
been  vicious,  they  have  never  been  indolent,  and  that  their 
rninds  have  never  slumbered  and  lost  by  disuse  the  power  of 
exertion.  Reflections  of  this  sort  make  me  very  uncomforta- 
ble, and  I  am  ready  to  cry  with  vexation  when  I  think  on  my 
misspent  life.  If  I  was  insensible  to  a  higher  order  of  merit, 
and  indifferent  to  a  nobler  kind  of  praise,  I  should  be  happier 
far ;  but  to  be  tormented  with  the  sentiment  of  an  honorable 
ambition  and  with  aspirations  after  better  things,  and  at  the 
same  time  so  sunk  in  sloth  and  bad  habits  as  to  be  incapable 
of  those  exertions  without  which  their  objects  are  unattain- 
able, is  of  all  conditions  the  worst.  I  sometimes  think  that  it 
would  be  better  for  me,  as  I  am  not  what  I  might  have  been 
(if  my  education  had  been  less  neglected,  and  my  mind  had 
undergone  a  better  system  of  moral  discipline),  if  I  was  still 
lower  than  I  am  in  the  scale,  and  belonged  entirely  to  a  more 
degraded  caste ;  and  then  again,  when  I  look  forward  to  that 
period  which  is  fast  approaching — 

When  ....  a  sprightlier  age — 

Comes  tittering  on  to  drive  one  from  tlic  stage — 


280  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

I  am  thankful  that  I  have  still  something  in  store,  that  though 
far  below  the  wise  and  the  learned,  I  am  still  something  raised 
above  the  ignorant  mob,  that  though  much  of  my  mental  sub- 
stance has  been  wasted,  I  have  enough  left  to  appear  respect- 
ably in  the  world,  and  that  I  have  at  least  preserved  that  taste 
for  literary  pursuits  which  I  cling  to  as  the  greatest  of  bless- 
ings and  the  best  security  against  the  tedium  and  vacuity 
which  are  the  indispensable  concomitants  of  an  idle  youth  and 
an  ignorant  old  age. 

As  a  slight  but  imperfect  sketch  of  the  talk  of  Holland 
House  I  will  put  down  this  : 

They  talked  of  Taylor's  new  poem,  "  Philip  van  Artevelde." 
Melbourne  had  read  and  admired  it.  The  preface,  he  said, 
was  affected  and  foolish,  the  poem  very  superior  to  any  thing 
in  Mihnan.  There  was  one  fine  idea  in  the  "  Fall  of  Jeru- 
salem " — that  of  Titus,  who  felt  himself  propelled  by  an  irre- 
sistible impulse  like  that  of  the  Greek  dramatists,  whose  fate 
is  the  great  agent  always  pervading  their  dramas.  They  held 
Wordsworth  cheap,  except  Spring  Bice,  who  was  enthusiastic 
about  him.  Holland  thought  Crabbe  the  greatest  genius  of 
modern  poets.  Melbourne  said  he  degraded  every  subject. 
None  of  them  had  known  Coleridge  ;  his  lectures  were  very 
tiresome,  but  he  is  a  poet  of  great  merit.  Then  they  spoke 
of  Spencer  Perceval  and  Irving  preaching  in  the  streets. 
Irving  had  called  on  Melbourne,  and  eloquently  remonstrated 
that  "  they  only  asked  the  same  license  that  was  given  to 
puppet-shows  and  other  sights  not  to  be  prevented  ;  that  the 
command  was  express,  '  Go  into  the  highways,'  and  that  they 
must  obey  God  rather  than  man."  Melbourne  said  this  was 
all  very  true  and  unanswerable.  "  What  did  you  answer  ?  "  I 
asked.  "  I  said,  l  You  must  not  preach  there.'  "  Then  of 
Cambridge  and  Goulburn,  who  is  a  saint  and  gave  lectures  in 
his  room,  by  which  he  has  caught  several  young  men.  Lord 
Holland  spoke  of  George  III.'s  letters  to  Lord  North ;  the 
King  liked  Lord  North,  and  hated  the  Duke  of  Richmond. 
Among  the  few  people  he  liked  were  Lord  Loughborough 
and  Lord  Thurlow.  Thurlow  was  always  "  endeavoring  to 
undermine  the  Minister  with  whom  he  was  acting,  and  in- 
triguing underhand  with  his  enemies."  Loughborough  used 
to  say,  "  Do  what  you  think  right,  and  never  think  of  what 
you  are  to  say  to  excuse  it  beforehand" — a  good  maxim. 
The  Duke  of  Richmond  in  1763  or  1764,  after  an  audience  of 
the  King  in  his  closet,  told  him  that  "  he  had  said  that  to  him 


1804.]  CONVERSATION  AT   HOLLAND   HOUSE.  281 

which  if.  he  was  a  subject  be  should  not  scruple  to  call  an  un- 
truth." The  King  never  forgave  it,  and  the  Duke  had  had 
the  imprudence  to  make  a  young  king  his  enemy  for  life. 
This  Duke  of  Richmond,  when  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Sussex, 
during  the  American  war,  sailed  in  a  yacht  through  the  fleet, 
when  the  King  was  there,  witb  American  colors  at  his  mast- 
head. He  never  forgave  Fox  for  putting  the  Duke  of  Portland 
instead  of  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Government  in  1782. 
During  the  riots  in  1780  on  account  of  Admiral  Keppel,  Tom 
Grenville  burst  open  the  door  of  the  Admiralty,  and  assisted 
at  the  pillage  and  destruction  of  papers.  Lord  Grey  a  little 
while  ago  attacked  him  about  it,  and  he  did  not  deny  it. 
Such  things  could  not  be  done  now.  During  the  Windsor 
election  they  hired  a  mob  to  go  down  and  throw  Lord  Morn- 
ington  (Lord  Wellesley)  over  Windsor  Bridge,  and  Fitz- 
patrick  said  it  would  be  so  fine  to  see  St.  Patrick's  blue  ribbon 
floating  down  the  stream.  They  first  sent  to  Piper  to  know 
if  Lord  Mornington  could  swim.  The  plan  was  defeated  by 
his  having  a  still  stronger  mob.  After  dinner  they  discussed 
women's  works :  few  chefs-d'oeuvre ;  Madame  de  Sevigne 
the  best ;  the  only  three  of  a  high  class  are  Madame  de  S6- 
vigne,  Madame  de  Stael,  and  (Bobus  Smith  said)  Sappho,  but 
of  her  not  above  forty  lines  are  extant :  these,  however,  are 
unrivaled  ;  Mrs.  Somerville  is  very  great  in  the  exact  sciences. 
Lady  Holland  would  not  hear  of  Madame  de  Stael.  They 
agreed  as  to  Miss  Austen  that  her  novels  are  excellent. 
Quintus  Curtius  is  confirmed  by  Burnes's  travels  in  Bokhara, 
but  was  reckoned  no  authority  by  the  greatest  scholars ;  Lord 
Melbourne  said  Mitford  had  expressed  his  confidence  in  him. 
Of  the  early  English  kings  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that 
any  king  before  Edward  III.  understood  the  English  language ; 
the  quarrel  between  Becket  and  King  Henry  II.  was  attrib- 
uted (by  some  writers)  to  the  hostile  feeling  between  Nor- 
mans and  Saxons,  and  this  was  the  principal  motive  of  the 
quarrel  and  the  murder  of  the  Archbishop.  Klopstock  had  a 
sect  of  admirers  in  Germany ;  some  young  students  made  a 
pilgrimage  from  Gottingen  to  Hamburg,  where  Klopstock 
lived  in  his  old  age,  to  ask  him  the  meaning  of  a  passage  in 
one  of  his  works  which  they  could  not  understand.  He 
looked  at  it,  and  then  said  that  he  could  not  then  recollect 
what  it  was  that  he  meant  when  he  wrote  it,  but  that  he 
knew  it  was  the  finest  thing  he  ever  wrote,  and  they  could 
not  do  better  than  devote  their  lives  to  the  discovery  of  its 
meaning. 


283  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

September  1th. — At  Holland  House  again  ;  only  Bobus 
Smith  and  Melbourne ;  these  two,  with  Allen,  and  Lord 
Holland,  agreeable  enough.  Melbourne's  excellent  scholar- 
ship and  universal  information  remarkably  display  themselves 
in  society,  and  he  delivers  himself  with  an  energy  which 
shows  how  deeply  his  mind  is  impressed  with  literary  sub- 
jects. 

After  dinner  there  was  much  talk  of  the  Church,  and  Allen 
spoke  of  the  early  reformers,  the  Catharists,  and  how  the 
early  Christians  persecuted  each  other  ;  Melbourne  quoted 
Vigilantius's  letter  to  Jerome,  and  then  asked  Allen  about 
the  llth  of  Henry  IV.,  an  Act  passed  by  the  Commons  against 
the  Church,  and  referred  to  the  dialogue  between  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  and  the  Bishop  of  Ely  at  the  beginning 
of  Shakespeare's  "  Henry  V.,"  which  Lord  Holland  sent  for 
and  read,  Melbourne  knowing  it  all  by  heart  and  prompting 
all  the  time.  Lingard  says  of  this  statute  that  the  Commons 
proposed  to  the  King  to  commit  an  act  of  spoliation  on  the 
clergy,  but  that  the  King  sharply  rebuked  them  and  desired 
to  hear  no  more  of  the  matter.  About  etymologies  Melbourne 
quoted  Tooke's  "  Diversions  of  Purley,"  which  he  seemed  to 
have  at  his  fingers'  ends.  I  forget  what  other  topics  were 
discussed,  but  after  Lady  Holland  and  Melbourne  and  Allen 
went  to  bed,  Lord  Holland,  Bobus,  and  I  sat  down,  and  Lord 
Holland  told  us  many  anecdotes  about  the  great  orators  of 
his  early  days.  Fox  used  to  say  Grey  was  the  most  prudent 
man  he  knew,  and  this  perhaps  owing  to  his  having  got  into 
a  scrape  early  in  his  Parliamentary  life,  by  attacking  Pitt, 
who  gave  him  a  severe  castigation;  it  was  about  his  letter  to 
the  Prince  being  sent  by  a  servant  during  the  Regency  dis- 
cussions. Fox  thought  his  own  speech  in  1804  on  going  to 
war  with  France  the  best  he  ever  made.  Lord  Holland  be- 
lieved that  Pitt  (the  younger)  was  not  so  eloquent  as  Chatham. 
Grattan  said,  "  He  takes  longer  flights,  does  not  soar  so  high." 
No  power  was  ever  equal  to  Chatham's  over  a  public  assem- 
bly, much  greater  in  the  Commons  than  it  was  afterward  in 
the  Lords.  When  Sir  Thomas  Robinson  had  been  boring  the 
House  on  some  commercial  question,  and  introduced  the  word 
"  sugar  "  so  often  that  there  was  at  last  a  laugh  as  often  as 
he  did  so,  Chatham,  then  Mr.  Pitt,  who  had  put  him  up,  grew 
very  angry,  and  at  last  his  wrath  boiled  over.  When  Robin- 
son sat  down  Pitt  rose,  and  with  a  tone  and  manner  of  the 
utmost  indignation  began,.  "  Mr.  Speaker,  sir — sugar — I  say 


1834.]  REMINISCENCES,  333 

sugar.  Who  laughs  now  ?  "  and  nobody  did  laugh.  Once  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  on  a  debate  during  the  American  war, 
he  said  he  hoped  the  King  might  be  awakened  from  his  slum- 
bers. There  was  a  cry  of  "  Order  1  order  !  "  "  Order,  my 
Lords  ?  "  burst  out  Chatham,  "  Order  ?  I  have  not  been  dis- 
orderly, but  I  will  be  disorderly.  I  repeat  again,  I  hope  that 
his  Majesty  may  be  awakened  from  his  slumbers,  but  that  he 
may  be  awakened  by  such  an  awful  apparition  as  that  which 
drew  King  Priam's  curtains  in  the  dead  of  the  night  and  told 
him  of  the  conflagration  of  his  empire."  Holland  regretted 
much  that  he  had  never  heard  Lord  North,  whom  he  fancied 
he  should  have  liked  as  much  as  any  of  his  great  opponents; 
his  temper,  shrewdness,  humor,  and  power  of  argument,  were 
very  great.  Tommy  Townshend,  a  violent,  foolish  fellow, 
who  was  always  talking  strong  language,  said  in  some  debate, 
"  Nothing  will  satisfy  me  but  to  have  the  noble  Lord's  head ; 
I  will  have  his  head."  Lord  North  said,  "  The  honorable 
gentleman  says  he  will  have  my  head.  I  bear  him  no  malice 
in  return,  for  though  the  honorable  gentleman  says  he  will 
have  my  head,  I  can  assure  him  that  I  would  on  no  account 
have  his." 

September  ~L3th. — Dined  again  at  Holland  House  the  day 
before  yesterday;  Melbourne,  Rice,  Lord  and  Lady  Albemarle, 
and  Lord  Gosford  ;  rather  dull.  A  discussion  about  who  was 
the  man  in  a  mask  who  cut  Charles  I.'s  head  off  ;  Mackin- 
tosh believed  he  knew.  What  a  literary  puerility  !  The 
man  in  a  mask  was  Jack  Ketch  (whatever  his  name  was);  who 
can  doubt  it  ?  Where  was  the  man,  Roundhead  or  Puritan, 
who  as  an  amateur  would  have  mounted  the  scaffold  to  per- 
form this  office  ?  But  the  executioner,  though  only  discharg- 
ing the  duties  of  his  office,  probably  thought  in  those  excited 
times  that  he  would  not  be  safe  from  the  vengeance  of  some 
enthusiastic  Cavalier,  and  that  it  was  more  prudent  to  conceal 
the  features  of  the  man  by  whom  the  deed  was  done.  Mel- 
bourne swore  that  Henry  VIII.  was  the  greatest  man  who 
ever  lived,  and  Allen  declared  if  he  had  not  married  Ann 
Boleyn  we  should  have  continued  Catholics  to  this  day,  both 
of  which  assertions  I  ventured  to  dispute.  Allen  with  all  his 
learning  is  fond  of  a  paradox,  and  his  prejudices  shine  forth 
in  every  question  in  which  Church  and  religion  are  implicated. 
Melbourne  loves  dashing  opinions. 

September  18th. — For  some  weeks  past  a  fierce  war  has 
been  waged  by  the  Times  against  the  Chancellor.  It  was  de- 


284  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXI Y.. 

dared  in  some  menacing  articles,  which  soon  swelled  into  a 
tone  of  rebuke,  and  have  since  been  sharpened  into  attacks  of 
a  constancy,  violence,  and  vigor,  quite  unexampled  ;  all  the 
power  of  writing  which  the  paper  can  command — argument, 
abuse,  and  ridicule — have  been  heaped  day  after  day  upon 
him,  and  when  it  took  a  little  breathing-time  it  filled  up  the 
interval  by  quotations  from  other  papers,  which  have  been 
abundantly  supplied  both  by  the  London  and  the  country 
press.  I  do  not  yet  know  what  are  the  secret  causes  which 
have  stirred  the  wrath  of  the  Times.  The  Examiner  has  once 
a  week  thrown  into  the  general  contribution  of  rancor  an  arti- 
cle perhaps  wittier  and  more  pungent  than  any  which  have 
appeared  in  the  Times,  but  between  them  they  have  flagel- 
lated him  till  he  is  raw,  and  it  is  very  clear  that  he  feels  it 
quite  as  acutely  as  they  can  desire.  While  they  have  thus 
been  administering  castigation  in  this  unsparing  style,  he  has 
afforded  them  the  best  opportunities  by  his  extraordinary 
progress  in  Scotland,  and  the  astonishing  speeches  which  he 
made  at  Aberdeen  and  Dundee,  making  more  mountebank 
exhibitions  than  he  did  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  exciting 
the  unquenchable  laughter  of  his  enemies  and  the  continual 
terror  of  his  friends.  Lord  Holland  told  me  that  he  was 
trembling  for  the  account  of  the  Edinburgh  dinner.  That 
great  affair  appears,  however  (by  the  first  half  of  the  proceed- 
ings), to  have  gone  off  very  well.  Lord  Grey  in  his  speech 
confined  himself  to  general  topics,  and  he  and  Brougham 
steered  extremely  clear  of  one  another,  but  Brougham  made 
some  allusions  which  Durham  took  to  himself,  and  replied  to 
with  considerable  asperity  of  tone,  avoiding,  however,  any 
personalities  and  any  thing  like  a  direct  collision.  Everybody 
asks,  How  long  will  Brougham  be  permitted  to  go  on  playing 
these  ape's  tricks  and  scattering  his  flummery  and  his  lies  ? 
and  then  they  say,  But  you  can't  get  rid  of  him,  and  the  Gov- 
ernment (dangerous  as  he  is  to  them)  could  not  get  on  with- 
out him.  There  would  probably  be  no  difficulty;  experience 
has  demonstrated  to  me  the  extreme  fallacy  of  the  notion  that 
anybody  under  any  circumstances  is  indispensable.  Althorp 
appeared  the  most  indispensable  man  the  other  day,  but  that 
was  only  because  his  friends  and  the  fools  in  the  House  of 
Commons  kept  bawling  out  that  he  was  so  till  they  persuaded 
him,  themselves,  and  everybody  else,  that  it  really  was  the 
case.  Who  would  have  dared  to  say  that  this  Government 
could  have  gone  on  without  either  Stanley  in  one  House  or 


1834.]  CANNING  AND   LORD   HOLLAND.  285 

Lord  Grey  in  the  other?  But  anybody  would  have  been 
scouted  as  mad  who  had  argued  that  it  would  go  on  just  as 
well  when  deprived  of  both  of  them.  The  Chancellor's  amaz- 
ing talents — his  eloquence,  sarcasm,  and  varied  powers — can 
never  fail  to  produce  considerable  effect ;  but  in  the  House  of 
Lords  the  field  is  narrow  for  the  display  of  these  qualities, 
the  audience  is  cold  and  unfriendly,  and  he  has  excited  such 
a  general  feeling  of  personal  animosity  against  himself,  and 
has  done  such  irreparable  injury  to  his  character — having  con- 
vinced all  the  world  that  he  is  desperately  ambitious,  false, 
capricious,  intriguing,  and  governed  by  no  principle,  and  under 
the  influence  of  no  sentiment  of  honor — that  his  influence  is 
exceedingly  diminished.  Those  who  are  charitably  disposed 
express  their  humane  conviction  that  he  is  mad,  and  it  probably 
is  not  very  remote  from  the  truth.1 

Henry  Taylor  brought  me  a  parcel  of  letters  to  frank  to 
Southey  the  other  day  ;  they  are  from  Newton,  Cowper's 
nephew  (I  think  to  W.  Thornton),  and  they  are  to  supply 
Southey  with  materials  for  Cowper's  Life,  which  he  is  writing. 
There  is  one  curious  fact  revealed  in  these  letters,  which 
accounts  for  much  of  Cowper's  morbid  state  of  mind  and  fits 
of  depression,  as  well  as  for  the  circumstance  of  his  running 
away  from  his  place  in  the  House  of  Lords.  It  relates  to 
some  defect  in  his  physical  conformation ;  somebody  found 
out  his  secret,  and  probably  threatened  its  exposure. 

September  19^A. — Yesterday  at  Holland  House;  nobody 
there  but  Melbourne.  We  were  talking  of  Reform,  and  Lord 
Holland  said,  "  I  don't  know  if  we  were  right  about  Reform, 
but  this  I  know,  that  if  we  were  to  propose  it  at  all,  we  were 
right  in  going  the  lengths  we  did,  and  this  was  Canning's 
opinion."  Melbourne  said,  ."  Yes,  1  know  it  was,  and  that 
was  mine,  and  that  was  the  reason  why  I  was  against  Reform." 
Holland  then  resumed  that  he  had  formerly  been  one  of  Can- 
ning's most  intimate  friends  at  college ;  that  at  that  time — 
the  beginning  of  the  French  Revolution — when  a  general  ex- 
citement prevailed,  Canning  was  a  great  Jacobin,  much  more 

1  [It  is  with  pain  and  reluctance  that  I  print  these  remarks  on  Lord  Brough- 
am, and  several  passages  in  the  prec-eding  pages  of  these  Memoirs  which  are 
equally  severe,  and  in  some  respects,  I  think,  exaggerated.  But  I  certainly  do 
not  feel  myself  justified  in  withholding  them.  They  were  all  revised  and  cor- 
rected by  the  author  himself  with  great  care;  and  nothing  but  a  true  and  full 
account  of  the  sentiments  which  Lord  Brougham's  conduct  had  excited  among 
his  colleagues  and  contemporaries  at  that  time  can  account  for  the  catastrophe 
which  awaited  him,  and  which  cxdu  U:<1  liim  for  the  rest  of  his  lite  from  o!]i>-i:il 
lilt'  and  employment.] 


236      .  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.      .  -       [CHAP.  XXIV. 

so  than  he  was  himself;  that  Canning  had  always  hated  the 
aristocracy  (a  hatred  which  they  certainly  returned  with  in- 
terest) ;  that  in  after-life  he  had  been  separated  from  Canning1, 
and  they  had  seen  but  little  of  each  other.  Just  before  he 
was  going  to  India,  however,  Holland  called  on  him,  and 
Canning  dined  at  Holland  House.  On  one  of  these  occasions 
they  had  a  conversation  upon  the  subject  of  Reform,  when 
Canning  said  that  he  saw  it  was  inevitable,  and  he  was  not 
sorry  to  be  away  while  the  measure  was  accomplished,  but 
that  if  he  had  been  here  while  it  was  mooted,  he  could  have 
let  those  gentlemen  (the  Whig  aristocracy)  know  that  they 
should  gain  nothing  by  it.  After  dinner  we  had  much  talk 
about  religion,  when  Allen  got  into  a  fury ;  he  thundered  out 
his  invectives  against  the  charlatanerie  of  the  Apostles  and 
Fathers  and  the  brutal  ignorance  of  the  early  Christian  con- 
verts, when  Holland  said,  laughing,  "  Well,  but  you  need  not 
abuse  them  so  violently."  They  were  in  high  delight  at  Hol- 
land House  at  the  way  the  Edinburgh  dinner  went  off.  It 
was  a  very  ludicrous  incident  that  the  Scotchmen  could  not 
be  kept  from  falling  to  before  Lord  Grey  and  the  grandees 
arrived,  and  when  they  did  come  most  of  the  dinner  was 
already  eaten  up.  The  Chancellor  is  said  to  have  made  an 
admirable  speech  at  the  meeting  of  savants,  full  of  dignity, 
propriety,  and  eloquence,  and  the  savants  spoke  one  more 
absurdly  than  another. 

September  23d. — On  Saturday  at  Stoke ;  came  up  yesterday 
with  Melbourne.  We  had  a  great  deal  of  talk.  As  soon  as 
we  got  into  the  carriage  he  asked  me  if  I  thought  it  was  true 
that  Talleyrand  had  taken  such  offense  at  Palmerston  that  he 
would  not  return  here  on  that  account,  and  if  I  knew  what  it 
was  that  had  affronted  him,  whether  any  deficiency  in  diplo- 
matic punctilio  or  general  offensiveness  of  manner.  I  told  him 
I  had  no  doubt  it  was  true,  and  that  the  complaints  against 
Palmerston  were  so  general  that  there  must  be  some  cause  for 
them,  and  though  Madame  de  Lieven  might  be  prejudiced 
against  him,  all  the  foreign  Embassadors  could  not  be  so. 
He  said  it  was  very  extraordinary  if  it  was  so,  tried  to  argue 
that  it  might  not  be  the  case,  and  put  it  in  all  sorts  of  different 
ways ;  he  said  that  Palmerston  exhibited  no  signs  of  temper 
or  arrogance  with  his  colleagues,  but  quite  the  reverse ;  he 
owned,  however,  he  was  very  obstinate.  We  then  talked 
over  the  Stratford  Canning  business  ;  he  admitted  that  it  was 
unfortunate  and  might  lead  to  serious  consequences,  both  ns 


1834.]  CONVERSATION  WITH  LORD   MELBOURNE.  287 

to  our  relations  with  the  Emperor  and  to  the  question  of 
diplomatic  expenses  here.  I  expressed  my  astonishment  that 
Palmerston's  obstinacy  should  have  been  permitted  to  have 
its  own  way  in  the  matter,  and  I  should  guess,  from  his  own 
strong  opinion  on  the  subject,  that  an  Embassador  would  be 
sent  before  long.  He  told  me — what  I  did  not  know  before — 
that  the  King  of  Prussia  had  desired  to  have  Lord  Clanwilliam 
recalled  from  Berlin. 

He  then  talked  of  Brougham,  and  I  found  that  he  knows 
him  thoroughly,  and  is  more  on  his  guard  than  I  thought 
he  was  with  regard  to  him.  I  told  him  of  the  change  in 
Sefton's  feelings  toward  him  on  Lord  Grey's  account,  and 
also  of  Brougham's  strange  want  of  discrimination  and  his 
imprudence  in  congratulating  himself  to  Sefton  on  the  recent 
changes,  and  of  his  expectations  of  profiting  by  Melbourne's 
advancement  to  power.  I  touched  lightly  on  the  latter  part, 
because  it  is  never  prudent  to  dwell  upon  topics  which  are 
injurious  to  a  person's  vanity,  and  a  word  dropped  upon  so 
tender  a  part  produces  as  much  effect  as  the  strongest  argu- 
ment. He  seemed  not  a  little  struck  by  it,  and,  when  I  said 
that  I  thought  there  was  a  taint  of  insanity  in  the  Chancellor, 
he  said  that  he  thought  a  great  change  in  him  was  manifest 
in  the  course  of  the  last  year,  and  admitted  that  he  did  not 
think  him  of  sound  mind,  certainly.  This  he  rather  implied 
than  expressed,  however.  He  talked  of  his  conduct  in  Par- 
liament, and  observed  upon  the  strange  forbearance  of  the 
Tories  toward  him ;  he  thought  he  had  never  given  stronger 
evidence  of  talent  than  in  some  of  his  speeches  during  the  last 
session.  I  asked  him  if  the  King  and  Brougham  were  well 
together.  He  shook  his  head :  "  Not  at  all,  and  the  King 
can't  bear  these  exhibitions  in  Scotland."  He  said  the  King 
liked  Palmerston,  Auckland,  Spring  Rice,  and  Mulgrave  ;  had 
no  fancy  for  any  of  the  rest.  (I  suspect  he  likes  him  [Mel- 
bourne], because  he  appears  to  talk  openly  to  him,  and  to 
express  his  feelings  about  the  others,  and  I  dare  say  Mel- 
bourne puts  him  at  his  ease.)  He  can't  bear  John  Russell, 
respects  Althorp  (and  particularly  Lord  Spencer),  but  hates 
A Ithorp's. politics;  treats  Lord  Holland  with  the  familiarity 
of  a  connection,1  but  doesn't  like  his  politics  either;  he  is 
tenacious  about  having  every  thing  laid  before  him,  often 
gives  his  opinion,  but  is  easily  satisfied  ;  liked  Lord  Grey,  but 

i  'Colonel  Fox,  Lord  Holland's  eldest  eon,  having  married  Lady  Mary,  the 
Kii  g1*  eldest  daughter,  both  however  born  out  of  wedlock.] 


288  SEIGN   OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

was  never  quite  at  his  ease  with  him  (this  accounts  for  his 
taking  Lord  Grey's  resignation  as  quietly  as  he  did)  ;  has  a 
very  John-Bullish  aversion  to  the  French,  and  the  junction  of 
the  English  and  French  fleets  two  years  ago  was  a  bitter  pill 
for  him  to  swallow. 

We  afterward  talked  of  Canning  and  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington, and  the  breaking  up  of  the  Tory  Government.  I 
told  him  that  I  believed  the  Duke  and  the  Tories  were  aware 
of  Canning's  communications  with  Brougham.  Brougham 
wrote  to  Canning,  and  made  him  an  unqualified  offer  of  sup- 
port. When  the  King  asked  Canning  how  he  was  to  obtain 
support  enough  to  carry  on  the  Government,  he  pulled  this 
letter  out  of  his  pocket,  gave  it  to  him,  and  said :  "  Sir,  3'our 
father  broke  the  domination  of  the  Whigs ;  I  hope  your 
Majesty  will  not  endure  that  of  the  Tories."  "  No,"  said  the 
King  ;  "  I'll  be  damned  if  I  do  !  "  and  he  made  him  Minister. 
This  Canning  told  Melbourne  himself. 

September  25th. — Dined  yesterday  at  Holland  House  ; 
only  Melbourne  and  Pahlen,  and  in  the  evening  Senior  came. 
He  is  a  very  able  man — a  conveyancer,  great  political  econo- 
mist, and  author  of  various  works  on  that  subject.  He  was 
employed  by  Government  to  draw  up  the  Poor  Law  Bill,  and 
might  have  been  one  of  the  Poor  Law  Commissioners  if  he 
would  have  accepted  the  office ;  his  profits  in  his  profession 
are  too  great  to  be  given  up  for  this  occupation.  By  a  dis- 
cussion which  arose  about  Bickersteth's  m-erits,  it  was  clear 
that  there  is  a  question  of  his  being  Solicitor-General.  Mel- 
bourne said  "  he  was  a  Benthamite,  and  they  were  all  fools." 
(He  said  a  doctrinaire  was  a  fool,  but  an  honest  man.)  I 
said,  "  The  Austins  were  not  fools."  "  Austin  ?  Oh,  a  damned 
fool.  Did  you  ever  read  his  book  on  '  Jurisprudence  ? ' '  I 
said  I  had  read  a  great  part  of  it,  and  that  it  did  not  appear 
to  be  the  work  of  a  fool.  He  said  he  had  read  it  all,  and  that 
it  was  the  dullest  book  he  ever  read,  and  full  of  truisms 
elaborately  set  forth.  Melbourne  is  very  fond  of  being  slash- 
ing and  paradoxical.  It  is  astonishing  how  much  he  reads, 
even  now  that  he  is  Prime  Minister.  He  is  greatly  addicted 
to  theology,  and  loves  conversing  on  the  subject  of  religion. 

,  who  wanted  him  to  marry  her  (which  he  won't  do, 

though  he  likes  to  talk  to  her),  is  the  depositary  of  his 
thoughts  and  notions  on  these  subjects,  and  the  other  day  she 
told  me  he  sent  her  a  book  (I  forget  what)  on  the  Revelation, 
stuffed  with  marginal  notes  of  his  own.  It  was  not  long-  a  2:0 


1834.]  REFLECTIONS   ON   TIIE   TURF.  289 

that  he  studied  Lardner's  book  on  the  "  Credibility  of  the 
Christian  Religion,"  and  compared  it  with  the  Bible  as  he 
went  along.  She  fancies  that  all  this  reading  and  reflection 
have  turned  him  into  the  right  way.  I  can  see  no  symptom 
of  it  at  Holland  House. 

After  dinner  we  talked  of  languages,  and  Lord  Holland 
insisted  that  Spanish  was  the  finest  of  all  and  the  best 
adapted  to  eloquence.  They  said  that  George  Villiers  wrote 
word  that  nothing  could  be  better  than  the  speaking  in  the 
Cortes — great  readiness  and  acuteness  in  reply — and  that  a 
more  dexterous  and  skillful  debater  than  Martinez  de  la  Rosa 
could  not  be  found  in  any  assembly.  "  That  speaking  so  well 
is  the  Avorst  thing  about  them,"  said  Melbourne.  "  Ah,  that 
is  one  of  your  paradoxes,"  Lord  Holland  replied. 

Allen  talked  to  me  about  the  Harley  papers,  which  were 
left  in  a  box  not  to  be  opened  for  sixty  years ;  the  box  was 
only  opened  a  few  years  ago  at  my  cousin  Titchfield's  (the 
first)  desire,  and  the  papers  submitted  to  Mackintosh,  with 
permission  to  publish  them  in  his  "History  of  England." 
Mackintosh's  death  put  an  end  to  this,  and  Allen  wants  me  to 
ask  my  uncle  the  Duke  of  Portland  to  put  them  in  my  hands 
and  let  me  publish  them.  I  never  did  so.  Macaulay  had 
all  Mackintosh's  papers,  and  among  them  his  notes  from 
these  MSS. 

London,  November  13£/i. — For  two  months  nearly  that  I 
have  been  in  this  country  I  have  not  written  a  line,  having  had 
nothing  worth  recording  to  put  down.  It  is  not  worth  my 
while  to  write,  nor  anybody  else's  to  read  (should  anybody 
ever  read  these  memoranda),  the  details  of  racing  and  all  that 
thereunto  appertains,  and  though  several  disagreeable  occur- 
rences have  ruffled  the  stream  of  my  life,  I  have  no  pleasure 
in  recording  these ;  for  if  their  consequences  pass  away,  and  I 
can  forget  them,  it  is  better  not  at  any  future  time  to  awaken 
"  the  scorpion  sting  of  griefs  subdued."  Of  public  events  I 
have  known  nothing  but  what  everybody  else  knows,  and  it 
would  have  been  mere  waste  of  time  to  copy  from  the  news- 
papers accounts  of  the  conflagration  of  the  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment or  the  Durham  dinner  at  Glasgow.  My  campaign  on 
the  turf  has  been  a  successful  one.  Still  all  this  success  has 
not  prevented  frequent  disgusts,  and  I  derive  any  thing  but 
unmixed  pleasure  from  this  pursuit  even  when  I  win  by  it. 
Besides  the  continual  disappointments  and  difficulties  incident 
to  it,  which  harass  the  mind,  the  life  it  compels  me  to  lead, 
35 


290  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

the  intimacies  arising1  out  of  it,  the  associates  and  the  war 
against  villainy  and  trickery,  being  haunted  by  continual  sus- 
picions, discovering  the  trust-tmworthiness  of  one's  most 
intimate  friends,  the  necessity  of  insincerity  and  concealment 
sometimes  where  one  feels  that  one  ought  and  would  desire 
to  be  most  open ;  then  the  degrading  nature  of  the  occupa- 
tion, mixing  with  the  lowest  of  mankind,  and  absorbed  in  the 
business  for  the  sole  purpose  of  getting  money,  the  con- 
sciousness of  a  sort  of  degradation  of  intellect,  the  con- 
viction of  the  deteriorating  effects  upon  both  the  feelings 
and  the  understanding  which  are  produced,  the  sort  of  dram- 
drinking  excitement  of  it — all  these  things  and  these  thoughts 
torment  me,  and  often  turn  my  pleasure  to  pain.  On  arriving 
in  town  I  went  to  Crockford's,  where  I  found  all  the  usual  set 
of  people,  and  soon  after  Sefton  came  in.  Lord  Spencer's 
death  had  taken  place  the  day  before ;  he  knew  nothing  of  the 
probable  arrangements,  but  he  told  me  that  he  supposed 
Althorp  would  go  to  the  Admiralty  and  Auckland  to  India. 
But  what  he  was  fullest  of  was  that  Mrs.  Lane  Fox's  house 
was  become  the  great  rendezvous  of  a  considerable  part  of  the 
Cabinet.  The  Chancellor,  Melbourne,  Duncannon,  and  Mul- 
grave,  are  there  every  day  and  all  day  ;  they  all  dine  with  her, 
or  meet  her  (the  only  woman)  at  each  other's  houses,  as  often 
as  they  can.  It  certainly  is  a  droll  connection.  The  squab- 
bles between  Brougham  and  Durham  seem  to  have  resolved 
themselves  into  a  mere  personal  coldness,  and  there  is  no 
question  now  of  any  hostilities  between  them.  I  never 
thought  there  would  be,  though  some  people  apparently  did ; 
but  they  both  would  much  rather  rail  than  tight. 

November  \kth. — Went  down  to  the  Council  Office  yester- 
day, and  found  them  in  the  middle  of  Lord  Westmeath's  case 
— Lord  Lansdovvne,  the  Vice-Chancellor,  Parke,  Ersldnc, 
and  Vaughan.  Lushington  was  for  Lady  Westmeath,  and 
Fcllett  (with  a  civilian)  for  him.  After  the  argument  there 
was  a  discussion,  ajid  well,  did  Westmeath  do,  for  they  re- 
duced the  alimony  frcm  £700  to  £315  a  year,  and  the  arrears 
in  the  same  proportion.  Thus  Westmeath  succeeded  in 
great  measure  in  his  appeal,  which  he  would  not  have  done 
if  the  Chancellor  had  contrived  to  lug  on  the  case  as  he 
wished ;  for  Erskine  was  all  for  giving  her  more,  the  others 
did  not  seem  averse,  and  but  for  Parke,  who  hit  off  the  right 
principle,  as  well  as  what  best  accorded  with  the  justice  cf 
the  case,  she  would  certainly  have  got  a  much  larger  award. 


1834.]  LAW  APPOINTMENTS.  291 

The  Vice-Chancellor  afterward  told  me  the  history  of  the 
recent  legal  appointments.  There  never  was  any  difference 
of  opinion  between  Brougham  and  Melbourne  on  the  subject 
of  either.  Campbell  accepted  the  Attorney-Generalship  on 
the  express  condition  that  he  should  not  expect  to  succeed  as 
a  matter  of  right  to  any  vacancy  in  the  Courts,  but  on  Leach's 
death  he  did  instantly  urge  his  claims.  Brougham  wrote  to 
Melbourne,  and  speedily  followed  his  letter  to  London,  and 
they  both  agreed  not  to  listen  to  this  claim,  and  to  prornote 
Pepys.  I  don't  know  how  they  disposed  of  Home's  claim. 
Bickersteth  *  refused  to  be  Solicitor-General  on  account  of  his 
health,  and  not  choosing  to  face  the  House  of  Commons  and 
its  work.  Shadwell  told  me  that  he  wrote  to  Brougham  and 
suggested  Rolfe  when  the  vacancy  occurred,  that  he  had  not 
been  in  great  practice,  but  was  a  good  lawyer  and  excellent 
speaker,  and  that  the  Chancellor  and  Melbourne  had  likewise 
concurred  in  this  appointment.  Nothing  is  settled  about  the 
new  arrangements  rendered  necessary  by  Lord  Spencer's  death, 
but  Melbourne  went  to  Brighton  yesterday.  Rice  has  worked 
hard  to  master  the  Colonial  business,  and  probably  will  not 
like  to  be  translated  to  the  Exchequer ;  besides,  it  is  sup- 
posed that  his  seat  at  Cambridge  would  be  in  great  peril. 
People  talk  of  their  not  going  on  ;  how  can  anv  others  go  on 
better? 

Lord  Lansdowne  has  just  returned  from  Paris,  where,  he 
told  me,  he  had  frequent  conversations  with  the  King.  The 
now  Ministry  is  a  wretched  patched-up  affair;  but  ths  Gov- 
ernment of  France  is  centred  in  the  King,  and  it  is  his  great 
power  and  influence  in  the  Chambers,  and  not  the  ability  of 
his  Ministers  (be  they  who  they  may),  that  keeps  the  thing 
going.  Kis  influence  appears  to  be  immense,  and  without 
enjoying  any  popularity,  there  is  a  universal  opinion  that 
Louis  Philippe  is  indispensable  to  France.  He  told  Lord 
Lansdowne  that  he  had  always  been  against  the  appointment 
of  Marshal  Gerard  as  President  of  the  Council,  although  he 

1  [Mr.  Bickersteth  refused  to  be  Solicitor-General  because  the  offer  was 
made  to  him  by  the  Lord  Chancellor,  and  not  by  the  Prime  Minister.  At  that 
time  he  was  personally  unacquainted  with  Lord  Melbourne,  but  ho  consented 
to  call  on  him  at  Lord  Melbourne's  request,  and  the  offer  was  repeated,  but 
not  accepted.  The  real  reason  of  his  refusal  was  his  profound  distrust  of  Lord 
Brougham,  which  amounted  to  aversion,  and  he  thought  it  unworthy  of  him- 
self i  >  accept  the  office  of  a  law  officer  of  tlio  Crown  under  a  Chancellor  with 
whom  he  could  not  conscientiously  act.  I  have  read  a  MS.  narrative  of  the 
whole  transaction  by  Lord  Langdalo  himself,  in  which  these  sentiments  are 
very  strongly  expressed.] 


292  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM  IV.  [C:up.  XXV 

had  a  high  opinion  of  him,  but  that  he  was  aware  he  had  not 
tact  and  judgment  sufficient  for  that  post,  and  he  had  told  his 
Ministers  that  he  would  consent  to  the  appointment  if  they 
insisted  on  it,  but  that  he  warned  them  that  it  would  break  up 
the  Government.  Whatever  may  be  the  instability  of  this  or 
any  other  Administration,  it  is  said  that  nothing  can  be  more 
firm  and  secure  than  the  King's  tenure  of  his  crown.  He 
appears,  in  fact,  to  be  the  very  man  that  France  requires,  and 
as  he  is  in  the  vigor  of  life  and  has  a  reasonable  prospect  of 
a  long  reign,  he  will  probably  consolidate  the  interests  of  his 
family  and  extinguish  whatever  lingering  chance  there  might 
be  of  the  restoration  of  the  old  effete  dynasty. 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

Fall  of  Lord  Melbourne's  C.ovcrnment— History  and  Causes  of  tins  Event— An  Intrigue— 
Effect  of  the  Coup  at  Holland  House — The  Change  of  Government — The  Two  Camps — 
The  King's  Address  to  the  New  Ministers— The  Duke's  Account  of  the  Transaction— 
And  Lord  Lyndhurst's— Difficult  Position  of  the  Tories— Their  Policy — The  Duke  in 
all  the  Offices — Negotiation  with  Mr.  Barnes — Power  of  the  Times — Another  Address 
of  the  King — Brougham  offers  to  be  Lord  Chief  Baron — Mr.  Barnes  dines  with  Lord 
Lyndhurst — Whig  View  of  the  Recent  Change — Liberal  Views  of  the  Tory  Ministers — 
The  King  resolved  to  support  them — Another  Account  of  the  Interview  between  the 
King  and  Lord  Melbourne — Lord  Stanley's  Position — Sydney  Smith's  Preaching  at 
St.  Paul's — Lord  Duncannon  and  Lord  Melbourne — Relations  of  the  Pour  Seceders  to 
Peel — Young  Disraeli — Lord  Melbourne's  Speeches  at  Derby — Lord  John  Russell's 
Speech  at  Totness — The  Duke  of  Wellington's  Inconsistencies  and  Conduct. 

November  ~L6th. — Yesterday  morning  the  town  was  elec- 
trified by  the  news  that  Melbourne's  Government  was  at  an 
end.  Nobody  had  the  slightest  suspicion  of  such  an  impend- 
ing catastrophe ;  the  Ministers  themselves  reposed  in  perfect 
security.  I  never  saw  astonishment  so  great  on  every  side ; 
nobody  pretended  to  have  prophesied  or  expected  such  an 
event.  Thus  it  befell :  On  Thursday  Melbourne  Avent  to  Brigh- 
ton to  make  arrangements  necessary  on  Lord  Spencer's  death. 
He  had  previously  received  a  letter  from  the  King,  which 
contained  nothing  indicative  of  the  fate  that  awaited  him. 
He  had  his  audience  on  Thursday  afternoon,  and  offered  his 
Majesty  the  choice  of  Spring  Rice,  Lord  John  Russell,  or  Aber- 
cromby,  to  lead  the  House  of  Commons  and  fill  th.e  vacant 
office.  The  King  made  some  objections,  and  said  he  must 
take  time  to  consider  it.  Nothing  more  passed  that  night, 
and  the  next  day,  when  Melbourne  saw  the  King,  his  Majesty 


1834.]  FALL   OF   MELBOURNE'S   GOVERNMENT.  293 

placed  in  his  hands  a  letter  containing  his  determination.  It 
was  couched  in  terms  personally  complimentary  to  Melbourne, 
but  he  said  that,  having  lost  the  services  of  Lord  Althorp  as 
leader  of  the  House  of  Commons,  he  could  feel  no  confidence 
in  the  stability  of  his  Government  when  led  by  any  other 
member  of  it ;  that  they  were  already  in  a  minority  in  the 
House  of  Peers,  and  he  had  every  reason  to  believe  the  re- 
moval of  Lord  Althorp  would  speedily  put  them  in  the  same 
situation  in  the  other  House;  1  hat  under  such  circumstances 
he  felt  other  arrangements  to  be  necessary,  and  that  it  was 
his  intention  to  send  for  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  Nothing 
could  be  more  peremptory  and  decisive,  and  not  a  loop-hole 
was  left  for  explanation  or  arrangements,  or  endeavor  to  patch 
the  thing  up.  The  King  wrote  to  the  Duke,  and,  what  is 
rather  droll,  the  letter  was  dispatched  by  Melbourne's  carriage, 
which  returned  to  town.  It  is  very  evident  that  the  King  has 
long  determined  to  seize  the  first  plausible  pretext  he  could 
find  for  getting  rid  of  these  people,  whom  he  dislikes  and 
fears,  and  that  he  thinks  (justly  or  not  remains  to  be  proved) 
the  translation  of  Althorp  affords  him  a  good  opportunity, 
and  such  a  one  perhaps  as  may  not  speedily  occur  again.  It 
is  long  since  a  Government  has  been  so  summarily  dismissed — 
regularly  kicked  out,  in  the  simplest  sense  of  that  phrase. 
Melbourne's  colleagues  expected  his  return  without  a  shadow 
of  apprehension  or  doubt.  He  got  back  late,  and  wrote  to 
none  of  them.  The  Chancellor,  who  had  dined  at  Holland 
House,  called  on  him  and  heard  the  news ;  the  others  (except 
Duncannon,  who  went  to  him,  and  I  believe  Palmerston)  re- 
mained in  happy  ignorance  till  yesterday  morning,  when  they 
were  saluted  at  their  rising  with  the  astounding  intelligence. 
All  the  Ministers  (except  Brougham)  read  the  account  of  their 
dismissal  in  the  Times  the  next  morning,  and  this  was  the 
first  they  heard  of  it.  Melbourne  resolved  to  say  nothing  that 
night,  but  summoned  an  early  Cabinet,  when  he  meant  to 
impart  it.  Brougham  called  on  him  on  his  way  from  Holland 
House.  Melbourne  told  him,  but  made  him  promise  not  to 
say  a  word  of  it  to  anybody.  He  promised,  and  the  moment 
he  quitted  the  house  sent  to  the  Times  office  and  told  them 
what  had  occurred,  with  the  well-known  addition  that  "  the 
Queen  had  done  it  all." 

They  contribute  their  fall  to  the  influence  of  the  Queen, 
and  fancy  that  it  is  the  result  of  a  preconcerted  scheme  and 
intrigue  with  the  Tories,  neither  of  which  do  I  believe  to  be 


294  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXV. 

true.  With  regard  to  the  latter  notion,  the  absence  of  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  who  is  traveling  in  Italy,  is  a  conclusive  proof 
of  its  falseness.  He  never  would  have  been  absent  if  he  had 
foreseen  the  remotest  possibility  of  a  crisis,  and  the  death  of 
Lord  Spencer  has  been  imminent  and  expected  for  some 
time  past.  I  am  convinced  that  it  is  the  execution  of  a 
project  which  the  King  has  long  nourished  of  delivering 
himself  from  the  Whigs  whenever  he  could.  His  original 
dislike  has  been  exasperated  to  a  great  pitch  by  the  mounte- 
bank exhibitions  of  Brougham,  and  he  is  so  alarmed  and 
disgusted  at  the  Radical  propensities  which  the  Durham 
dinner  has  manifested,  that  he  is  resolved  to  try  whether 
the  Government  cannot  be  conducted  upon  principles  which 
are  called  Conservative,  but  which  shall  really  be  bond  fide 
opposed  to  the  ultra  doctrines  and  wild  schemes  which  lie 
knows  are  not  distasteful  to  at  least  one-half  of  his  late 
Cabinet. 

His  resentment  against  these  people  has  been  consider- 
ably increased  by  the  discovery  (which  he  believes  he  has 
made)  of  his  having  been  grossly  deceived  at  the  period  of 
Lord  Grey's  retirement  and  the  formation  of  Melbourne's 
Administration.  The  circumstances  of  this  part  of  the 
business  I  know  only  imperfectly,  so  much  so  as  to  leave  a 
good  deal  that  requires  explanation  in  order  to  make  it 
intelligible ;  but  I  was  told  on  good  authority  yesterday 
that  at  that  time  Sir  Robert  Peel  and  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton were  quite  prepared  to  undertake  the  formation  of  a 
Government  if  it  had  been  proposed  to  them,  and  that  he 
had  every  reason  to  believe  they  had  been  betrayed  by  "  that 

scoundrel  H ,"  who  had  been  employed  by  some  of  the 

other  party  to  find  out  what  their  intentions  and  dispositions 

were  upon  that  point;    that  H had   gone  to  them  and 

asked  them  the  question,  and  having  at  that  time  entire 
confidence  in  him,  they  had  told  him  if  it  was  offered  to 
them  they  certainly  would  undertake  it ;  that  he  had  never 
told  them  or  given  them  any  reason  to  believe  that  he  was 
commissioned  to  find  out  their  resolution,  and  they  think  he 
returned  to  his  employer  and  told  him  that  they  must  take 
care  how  such  an  offer  was  made  to  the  Tories,  as  they 
would  certainly  accept  it  if  it  was  offered.  Melbourne  was 
no  party  to  this  transaction,  but  the  consequences  of  it  was 
that  the  King  was  given  to  understand  that  it  would  be 
useless  to  propose  to  them  to  form  a  Government,  for  they 


1834.]  EFFECTS   OF   THE   COUP.  295 

were  not  prepared  to  do  so,  and  he  was  advised  to  make  the 
proposal  of  a  coalition,  which  was  made,  and  which  the}'  of 
course  rejected.  The  King,  it  appears,  subsequently  dis- 
covered what  their  disposition  had  been  at  the  time,  and  that 
he  had  been  misled  and  deceived,  and  this  made  him  very 
indignant. 

I  should  like  to  know  this  story  more  in  detail,  for  it 
would  be  curious  to  learn  who  were  the  agents  in  the  intrigue, 

and,  above  all,  what  could  induce  H to  sacrifice  the 

interests  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  (with  whom  he  had 
great  influence  and  to  whom  he  had  great  obligations)  and 
of  the  party  from  which  alone  he  could  expect  any  solid 
advantages  to  those  of  the  Whigs,  from  whom  he  could  derive 
no  benefit  sufficient  to  compensate  him  for  the  danger  as  well 
as  treachery  of  the  transaction.  I  never  liked  this  fellow,  and 
always  thought  him  a  low  blackguard,  and,  however  shrewd 
and  active,  a  bad  confidant  and  "fidus  Achates"  for  the  Duke 
to  have  taken  up  ;  but  the  folly  and  short-sightedness  of  this 
proceeding  seem  so  obvious  (to  say  nothing  of  its  villainy) 
that  I  cannot  without  strong  proofs  yield  my  belief  to  the 
story,  though  Peel  is  not  a  man  to  harbor  such  strong  sus- 
picions on  slight  grounds. 

This  morning  Lord  Lansdowne  wrote  me  word  that  the 
Duke  had  accepted,  but  it  is  probable  that  nothing  can  be 
done  till  Peel  returns  from  Italy.  He  will  accept  no  post  but 
that  of  Prime  Minister,  though  the  King  wrould  prefer  to  put 
the  Duke  there  if  he  would  take  it. 

November  \lth. — It  is  only  bit  by  bit  that  one  ascertains 
the  truth  in  affairs  like  these.  It  is  true  that  the  King 
imparted  his  resolution  to  Melbourne  in  a  letter,  but  not 
true  in  the  sense  in  which  that  fact  is  intended  to  be  taken. 
I  went  to  Holland  House  yesterday,  but  my  Lord  and  my 
Lady  were  gone  to  town.  I  met  the  heavy  chariot  slowly 
moving  back  through  Kensington,  and  stopped  to  talk  to 
them.  They  seemed  in  tolerably  good  spirits,  all  things 
considered ;  like  the  rest,  they  had  not  a  suspicion  of  what 
was  going  to  happen.  Melbourne  was  to  have  dined  there 
en  Friday,  but  did  not  arrive.  At  eleven  o'clock  everybody 
went  away,  without  any  tidings  having  come  of  Melbourne  ; 
the  next  morning  Lord  Holland  read  in  the  Times  that  the 
Government  was  at  an  end.  Allen  swore  that  it  must  be  a 
hoax,  and  it  was  only  upon  receiving  a  summons  to  the 
Cabinet  at  twelve  instead  of  two  that  Holland  began  to  think 


296  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXV. 

there  was  something  in  it.  He  told  me  that  the  King  had 
two  long  conversations  with  Melbourne,  in  which  he  explained 
his  opinions,  motives,  and  intentions,  and  finally  gave  him 
the  letter,  that  he  might  show  it  to  his  colleagues.  It  would 
now  appear  that  no  definite  arrangements  were  proposed 
to  him  at  all ;  nothing,  in  fact,  could  be  settled  till  it  was 
ascertained  what  Althorp  would  do — whether  he  would  con- 
tinue in  office,  and  what  office  he  would  take — but  they  in- 
tended that  Lord  John  Russell  should  be  the  leader  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  or  what  they  call  "  try  it."  This  must 
have  been  peculiarly  distasteful  to  the  King,  who  dislikes 
Lord  John,  and  thinks  him  a  dangerous  little  Radical,  and 
Melbourne  is  well  aware  of  this  antipathy.  On  the  Friday 
night  Melbourne,  with  a  party  of  his  colleagues — Mul grave, 
Ben  Stanley,  Poulett  Thomson,  and  one  or  two  more — were 
at  the  play  just  opposite  to  me  ;  the  piece  was  the  "Regent," 
and  it  was  full  of  jokes  about  dismissing  Ministers  and  other 
things  very  applicable,  at  which  Melbourne,  at  least  (who 
does  not  care  a  button  about  office,  whatever  he  may  do 
about  power),  was  heartily  amused.  To-day  the  King  came 
to  town  to  receive  the  resignations,  for  he  is  resolved  to 
finish  off  the  whole  affair  at  once  and  make  maison  nette  / 
they  have  been  ordered  therefore  to  attend  at  St.  James's  and 
give  up  their  seals. 

Five  o'clock. — Just  returned  from  St.  James's.  In  the 
outer  room  I  found  assembled  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  Lynd- 
hurst,  Rosslyn,  Goulburn,  Hardinge,  the  Speaker,  Jersey, 
Maryborough,  Cowley,  whom  the  Duke  had  collected  in 
order  to  form  a  Privy  Council ;  in  the  Throne  Room  the  ex- 
Cabinet  congregated,  and  it  Avas  amusing  to  watch  them  as 
they  passed  through  the  camp  of  their  enemies,  and  to  see 
their  different  greetings  and  bows ;  all  interchanged  some 
slight  civility  except  Brougham,  who  stalked  through  look- 
ing as  black  as  thunder  and  took  no  notice  of  anybody. 
The  first  question  that  arose  was,  What  was  to  be  done 
about  the  prorogation  ?  The  Duke  thought  they  might  as 
well  finish  that  business  to-day,  and  I  went  on  an  embassy 
into  the  other  room  to  propose  it ;  but  they  declined  to  have 
any  thing  to  say  to  it  and  evinced  great  anxiety  to  take  no 
part  in  any  proceedings  of  this  day.  Accordingly  Lord 
Lansdowne  explained  to  the  King  that  the  presence  of  a 
Lord  President  was  not  necessary,  and  that  there  was  a 
sufficiency  of  Tory  Lords  to  form  a  Council,  so  his  Majesty 


1334.]  THE   TORIES   IX   OFFICE.  297 

consented  to  the  late  Ministers  going  away.  As  I  thought 
the  company  of  those  who  were-  coming  in  \vould  be  more 
cheerful  and  agreeable  than  that  of  those  who  were  going 
out,  I  passed  my  time  in  the  outer  room,  and  had  a  good 
deal  of  conversation  with  the  Duke  and  Lyndhurst,  from 
whom  I  gathered  every  thing  that  I  did  not  know  before. 
After  the  Whigs  had  made  their  exit  we  went  into  the 
Throne  Room,  and  the  King  sent  for  Lyndhurst,  who  only 
staid  with  him  a  few  minutes,  and  then  the  Duke  and  all 
the  Privy  Councilors  were  summoned.  After  greeting  them 
all,  and  desiring  them  to  sit  down,  he  began  a  speech 
nearly  as  follows  :  "  Having  thought  proper  to  make  a  change 
in  my  Government,  at  the  present  moment  I  have  directed 
a  new  commission  to  be  issued  for  executing  the  office  of 
Lord  High  Treasurer,  at  the  head  of  which  I  have  placed 
the  Duke  of  Wellington,  and  his  Grace  has  kissed  hands 
accordingly  upon  that  appointment.  As  by  the  Constitution 
of  this  country  the  King  can  do  no  wrong,  but  those  persons 
are  responsible  for  ids  acts  in  whom  he  places  his  confideiice 
— as  I  do  in  the  Lords  now  present — it  is  necessary  to  place 
the  seals  of  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Home  Department 
in  those  bands  in  which  I  can  best  confide,  and  I  have  there- 
fore thought  proper  to  confer  that  office  likewise  on  his  Grace, 
who  will  be  sworn  in  accordingly."  Here  the  Duke  came 
round,  and,  after  much  fumbling  for  his  spectacles,  took  the 
oath  of  Secretary  of  State.  The  King  then  resumed  :  "  It  is 
likewise  necessary  for  me  to  dispose  of  the  seals  of  the  other 
two  Secretaries  of  State,  and  I  therefore  place  them  likewise 
for  the  present  in  the  same  hands,  as  he  is  already  First  Lord 
of  the  Treasury  and  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Home  Office." 
Then,  turning  to  me,  he  asked  if  there  was  any  business,  and 
being  told  there  was  none,  desired  me  to  retire.  When  I  was 
gone  he  began  another  harangue,  to  the  effect  that  he  had 
endeavored,  since  he  had  been  upon  the  throne,  to  do  for  the 
b"st,  and  that  he  could  not  fill  up  any  of  the  other  offices  at 
prssent. 

Now  for  what  I  learned  from  the  Duke  and  Lyndhurst. 
The  former  told  me  that  the  was  just  going  out  hunting  when 
the  messenger  arrived;  that  the  letter  merely  said  that  the 
King  wished  to  see  him,  to  consult  with  him  as  to  the  steps  he 
should  take  with  regard  to  the  formation  of  another  Govern- 
ment. He  went  off  directly,  and  at  once  told  the  King  that 
the  best  thing  he  coulJ  do  was  to  send  for  Sir  Robert  Peel, 


298  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXV. 

and  that  until  he  arrived  he  would  undertake  to  carry  on  the 
Government  by  a  provisional  arrangement,  and  would  do  noth- 
ing more  until  Peel's  return.  So  the  matter  accordingly 
stands,  and  no  other  appointment  will  be  made  except  that 
+he  Great  Seal  will  be  transferred  to  Lyndhurst,  without, 
however  (at  present),  his  becoming  Chancellor.  He  talked  a 
great  deal  about  the  state  of  the  late  Government,  and  what 
passed  between  Melbourne  and  the  King,  but  I  heard  this  still 
more  in  detail  from  Lyndhurst  afterward. 

I  asked  the  Duke  if  he  had  seen  the  Times  this  morning. 
He  said  "  No,"  and  I  told  him  there  appeared  in  it  a  consider- 
able disposition  to  support  the  new  Government,  and  I  thought 
it  would  be  very  advisable  to  obtain  that  support  if  it  could 
be  done.  He  said  he  was  aware  that  he  had  formerly  too 
much  neglected  the  press,  but  he  did  not  think  the  Times 
could  be  influenced.  I  urged  him  to  avail  himself  of  any 
opportunity  to  try,  and  he  seemed  very  well  disposed  to  do 
so.  Lyndhurst,  whom  T  afterward  talked  to  for  a  long  time, 
went  into  the  whole  business.  He  safd  that  it  was  very 
desirable  that  the  public  should  knoAV  the  truth  of  what  had 
taken  place  between  the  King  and  Melbourne,  both  in  con- 
versation and  by  letter,  because  it  would  be  seen  that  the 
former  was  in  no  way  to  blame.  [This  case,  such  as  Lynd- 
hurst described  it  to  me,  was  afterward  put  hvpothetically  in 
the  Times,  to  which  it  was  furnished  probably  by  Scarlett, 
but  the  Whigs  emphatically  declare  that  it  is  not  correct,  and 
that  it  will  be  found,  when  Melbourne  states  the  truth  (as  he 
will  require  the  King's  permission  to  do),  that  his  Majesty  had 
no  cause  at  all.  In  the  midst  of  these  conflicting  assertions 
time  must  show. — November  26?A.]  Melbourne  told  him  that, 
as  he  had  only  undertaken  to  carry  on  the  Government  in 
consideration  of  having  the  assistance  of  Althorp  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  his  removal  made  it  necessary  to  adopt  a  new 
organization  altogether,  that  some  considerable  concessions  to 
the  principle  of  Reform  were  judged  to  be  necessary,  and 
the  appointment  of  a  successor  to  Althorp,  Avho  should  carry 
them  into  effect ;  that  he  was  of  opinion  that  without  these 
the  Government  could  not  go  on,  and  at  the  same  time  it  was 
necessary  to  state  that  there  were  members  of  the  Cabinet 
who  did  not  coincide  with  these  views,  and  who  would  retire 
when  Parliament  met  if  they  were  adopted.  These  were  Lord 
Lansdowne  and  Spring  Rice ;  Lord  John  Russell  was  to  lead 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  but  the  loss  of  Rice  would  be  a 


1834.]  CONVERSATION   WITH   LYNDHURST.  299 

severe  blow  to  them.  The  concession  related  principally  to 
Church  reform.  The  disunion  of  the  Cabinet  being  thus  ex- 
hibited, it  was  clear  the  Government  could  not  go  on  without 
some  material  alteration  in  its  composition.  The  King  urged 
this  and  asked  Melbourne  from  what  quarter  the  necessary  ac- 
cession of  strength  was  to  be  procured,  and  whether  he  could 
hope  for  it  from  the  Conservative  interest.  He  owned  that 
nothing  was  to  be  expected  from  that  quarter.  It  remained, 
then,  that  it  was  only  from  the  more  extreme  party  that  their 
ranks  could  be  recruited.  To  this  the  King  would  not  con- 
sent, and  he  therefore  imparted  to  him  his  resolution  of  plac- 
ing the  Government  in  other  hands.1 

Lyndhurst  then  went  off  upon  the  difficulties  of  their 
position.  I  told  him  that  the  Duke  had  said  to  me,  "  If  the 
King  had  been  a  very  clever  man,  he  would  probably  have 
played  a  more  adroit  game,  by  letting  them  go  on  till  Parlia- 
ment met,  and  then  taking  the  opportunity  which  would 
soon  present  itself  of  breaking  them  up  ; "  that  I  disagreed 
with  the  Duke,  and  thought  it  infinitely  more  convenient 
that  this  change  should  take  place  while  Parliament  was  not 
sitting,  to  which  Lyndhurst  fully  agreed.  He  said  that  they 
must  dissolve  as  soon  as  Peel  came  home,  that  they  had  no 
alternative  ;  that  it  would  not  do  to  try  this  Parliament,  to 
run  the  chance  of  a  failure  and  dissolve  after  having  expe- 
rienced it,  that  this  would  be  too  great  a  risk.  He  said  that 
they  had  several  seats  quite  safe  in  consequence  of  their 
superior  management  about  the  registration,  such  as  Leeds 
and  Ripon,  where  they  were  sure  of  both  members.  He  then 
talked  of  the  tactics  to  be  used,  and  said  they  must  direct 
their  hostility  against  the  Whigs  rather  than  the  Radicals, 
and  make  it  their  principal  object  to  diminish  the  number  of 
the  former.  I  said  I  thought  this  a  very  perilous  game  to 
play,  and  that  if  it  was  avowed  and  acted  upon,  it  would 
infallibly  produce  a  reunion  between  the  Whigs  and  Radicals, 
who  would  coalesce  to  crush  their  Government  ;  that  tho 
Radicals  were  now  very  angry  with  the  Whigs,  who  they 
thought  had  deserted  the  principles  they  professed,  and  it 
should  rather  be  their  care  to  keep  Whigs  and  Radicals 
asunder  than  provoke  a  fresh  alliance  between  them.  He  said 

'  [This  account  of  the  transaction  is  confirmed  in  almost  every  particular  by 
the  statement  drawn  up  by  King  William  himself  (or  by  his  directions)  for  the 
information  of  Sir  EoDcrt  Peel,  nnd  first  published  in  Baron  Stockmar's 
"Memoirs"  in  1872. j 

\ 


300  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CIIAP.  XXV. 

the  Whigs  were  certain  to  join  the  Radicals.  I  asked  him  if 
lie  had  seen  the  Times,  said  what  had  passed  between  the 
Duke  and  me,  and  told  him  he  would  do  well  to  endeavor  to 
obtain  its  support.  He  said  he  desired  nothing  so  much,  but 
in  his  situation  he  did  not  like  personally  to  interfere,  nor  to 
place  himself  in  their  power.  I  told  him  I  had  some  acquaint- 
ance with  Barnes,  the  editor  of  the  paper,  and  would  find  out 
what  he  was  disposed  to  do,  and  would  let  him  know,  which 
he  entreated  I  would.  The  Duke  had  said,  laughing,  "  I  hear 
they  call  me  a  Reformer."  I  said,  "  They  think  you  will  make 
as  good  a  Reformer  as  the  present  men,  if,  as  Brougham  said 
in  Scotland,  they  would  have  done  less  this  session  than  they 
did  the  last."  1  asked  Lyndhurst  if  he  had  seen  or  heard  of 
the  Duke's  letter  to  the  Oxford  people,  and  told  him  that  it 
was  very  desirable  that  credit  should  be  given  them  for  in- 
tending to  carry  on  their  government  upon  principles  as 
liberal  as  that  letter  evinced,  and  I  hoped  there  would  be  no 
foolish  declarations  fulminated  against  Reform,  and  that  they 
would  all  be  convinced  now  that  matters  had  been  brought  to 
such  a  state  (no  matter  how  and  by  whom)  that  the  old  prin- 
ciple of  hostility  to  all  reforms  must  be  abandoned.  He  said 
that  Peel  would,  he  trusted,  be  flexible,  that  if  such  declara- 
tions were  made,  and  such  principles  announced,  they  must 
be  upset,  but  the  Tories  would  be  difficult  to  manage,  and 
discontented  if  there  was  not  a  sufficient  infusion  of  their 
party  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  agricultural  interest  had 
assembled  a  force  under  Lord  Chandos,  a  sort  of  confederation 
of  several  counties,  and  that  Chandos  had  told  him  that  he 
and  the  representatives  of  their  counties  would  not  support 
any  Ministry  that  would  not  pledge  itself  to  repeal  the  malt 
tax  ;  that  they  would  agree  to  reenact  the  beer  tax,  but  the 
malt  tax  must  cease. 

Brougham  had  written  to  Lyndhurst  saying  he  should  be 
ready  to  resign  the  Great  Seal  in  a  few  days,  and  only  wished 
first  to  give  some  judgments,  that  he  was  rejoiced  at  retiring 
from  office  and  at  the  prospect  of  being  able  to  do  what  was 
his  great  delight — devote  himself  to  State  affairs  without 
being  trammeled  and  having  to  fear  the  imputation  of  impru- 
dence and  indiscretion.  "He  will  be,"  Lyndhurst  said,  "the 
most  troublesome  fellow  that  ever  existed,  and  do  all  the  mis- 
chief he  can."  I  said,  "  What  can  he  do  ?  he  was  emascu- 
lated when  he  left  the  House  of  Commons."  "  Yes,"  he  said, 
"he  knows  that,  but  he  will  come  down  night  after  night  and 


1834.]  LYNDHURST  ON  BROUGHAM.  301 

produce  plans  of  Reform  upon  any  subject ;  lie  will  make 
speeches  two  or  three  hours  long  to  very  thin  Houses,  which 
will  be  printed  in  all  the  newspapers  or  published  by  himself 
and  circulated — in  fact,  a  series  of  pamphlets."  I  said  that 
he  had  damaged  himself  so  much  that  I  did  not  think  he  could 
do  a  great  deal  of  harm,  with  all  his  speeches  and  pamphlets. 
He  said  he  had  damaged  himself  in  more  ways  than  one.  He 
then  went  off  upon  his  admirable  social  qualities  and  his  gen- 
erous conduct  to  his  family,  both  of  which  may  most  justly  be 
praised,  and  said  what  a  melancholy  thing  it  was  to  see  a  man 
with  such  fine  talents  mar  their  effect  by  his  enormous  errors 
in  judgment. 

Lord  Holland,  who  came  out  last  of  all  his  colleagues,  upon 
his  crutches,  stopped  in  great  good-humor  and  said  to  the 
Duke,  "You  can't  get  me  out,  I  can  tell  you,  without  going 
into  Lancashire,  for  my  seal  is  there." 

The  Duke  told  me  that  he  did  not  mean  to  make  the 
slightest  alteration  in  the  transaction  of  the  current  business 
in  the  different  offices,  which  would  go  on  as  usual  through 
the  under-secretaries,  whom  he  should  request  to  continue  at 
their  posts  for  the  purpose.  As,  however,  a  disposition  was 
evinced  on  the  part  of  the  late  Cabinet  not  to  afford  him  any 
facilities,  he  began  to  think  that  this  might  not  impossibly 
extend  to  the  subordinates,  and  he  said  that  at  all  events  he 
would  have  two  people  ready  to  put  into  the  Treasury  to 
transact  the  business  there.  I  told  him  if  he  was  in  any  dif- 
ficulty he  might  make  any  use  he  pleased  of  me.  There  can 
hardly  be  any  difficulty,  however,  when  there  are  permanent 
under-secretaries  in  all  the  offices. 

Thus  ended  this  eventful  day ;  just  four  years  ago  I  wit- 
nessed the  reverse  of  the  picture.  I  think  the  Whigs  upon 
this  occasion  were  much  more  angry  and  dejected  than  the 
Tories  were  upon  that.  They  had  perhaps  some  reason,  for 
their  case  is  one  of  rare  occurrence — unceremoniously  kicked 
out,  not  resignations  following  ineffectual  negotiations  or 
ballled  attempts  at  arrangement,  but  in  the  plenitude  of  their 
fancied  strength,  and  utterly  unconscious  of  danger,  they 
were  discarded  in  the  most  positive,  summary,  and  peremp- 
tory manner.  Great,  therefore,  is  their  indignation,  mortifi- 
cation, and  chagrin,  and  bitter  will  no  doubt  be  their  oppo- 
sition. They  think  that  the  new  Government  have  no  chance 
of  getting  a  House  of  Commons  that  will  support  them,  and 
certainly  if  they  do  not,  and  if  the  Tories  are  compelled  after 


302  REIGN  0?  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXV. 

a  fruitless  struggle  to  resign,  miserable  will  be  the  condition 
of  the  King  and  the  House  of  Lords,  and  not  very  enviable 
that  of  any  Government  that  may  succeed  them. 

To  speculate  upon  probabilities  is  impossible ;  the  ne\v 
Government  at  present  consists  of  the  Duke,  Lyndhurst,  and 
Peel,  and,  till  it  shall  be  seen  of  what  materials  the  complete 
structure  is  composed,  and  what  principles  they  enunciate,  it 
is  idle  to  discuss  the  matter.  Lyndhurst  and  I  agreed  cor- 
dially that  all  the  evils  of  the  last  four  years — the  breaking  up 
of  their  Government,  and  the  Reform  Bill  that  was  the  conse- 
quence of  that  catastrophe — were  attributable  to  the  High 
Tories.  Whatever  may  be  their  wishes  now,  they  can  hardly 
play  the  same  game  over  again ;  they  must  support  this  Gov- 
ernment, even  though  it  shall  not  act  upon  the  high-flying 
principles  which  they  so  fondly  and  obstinately  cherish. 
Their  salvation  and  that  of  all  the  institutions  to  which  they 
cling  require  that  they  should  support  the  Duke  and  Peel  in 
carrying  on  the  Government  upon  those  principles  on  which, 
from  the  circumstances-  of  the  times  and.  the  events  which 
have  occurred,  an  Administration  must  act  in  order  to  have  a 
shadow  of  a  chance  of  being  tolerated  by  the  House  of  Com- 
mons and  the  country.  Lyndhurst  is  sensible  of  this  ;  I  wish 
Peel  may  be  so  likewise.  If  they  both  are,  I  have  little  fear 
for  the  Duke. 

November  ~L9th. — Laid  up  these  two  days  with  the  gout 
in  my  knee,  so  could  not  go  out  to  hear  what  is  going  on. 
The  Duke,  I  find,  after  the  Council  on  Monday  (losing  no 
time),  repaired  to  the  Home  Office  and  ordered  the  Irish 
papers  to  be  brought  to  him,  then  to  the  Foreign  Office, 
where  he  asked  for  the  last  dispatches  from  Spain  and 
Portugal,  and  so  on  to  the  Colonial  Office,  where  he  required 
information  as  to  the  state  of  their  department.  I  have  no 
doubt  he  liked  this,  to  play  the  part  of  Richelieu  for  a  brief 
period,  to  exercise  all  the  functions  of  administration.  They 
complain,  however,  and  not  without  reason,  of  the  uncere- 
monious and  somewhat  uncourteous  mode  in  which  without 
previous  notice  he  entered  into  the  vacant  offices,  taking  actual 
possession,  without  any  of  the  usual  preliminary  civilities  to 
the  old  occupants.  Duncannon,  who  had  been  in  the  Home 
Office  up  to  the  time  of  the  Council  on  Monday,  and  whose 
papers  were  unremoved,  if  he  had  returned  after  it,  would 
have  found  the  Duke  seated  in  his  still  warm  chair,  issuing 
directions  to  Phillips,  the  under-secretary,  while  Macdonald, 


1834.]  LYXDHURST  SWORN  IN  CHANCELLOR.  303 

Duncannon's  private  secretary,  was  still  at  his  vocation  in 
the  adjoining  room.  Pretty  much  the  same  thing  he  did  in 
the  other  three  offices.  He  has  fixed  his  headquarters  at 
the  Home  Office,  and  occasionally  roves  over  the  rest.  All 
this  is  unavoidable  under  existing  circumstances,  but  it  is 
enough  to  excite  merriment,  or  censure,  or  suspicion,  accord- 
ing to  different  tastes  and  tempers.  The  King  offered  to 
make  Melbourne  an  earl  and  to  give  him  the  Garter,  but  he 
declined,  and  begged  it  might  be  given  to  the  Duke  of 
Graf  ton. 

In  consequence  of  what  passed  between  Lyndhurst  and 
me  concerning  the  Times  (at  St.  James's)  I  made  Henry  de 
Ros  send  for  Barnes  (who  had  already  at  his  suggestion 
adopted  a  conciliatory  and  amicable  tone  toward  the  embryo 
Government),  who  came  and  put  on  paper  the  terms  on  which 
he  would  support  the  Duke.  These  were:  no  mutilation  of 
the  Reform  Bill,  and  the  adoption  of  those  measures  of  reform 
which  had  been  already  sanctioned  by  votes  of  the  House  of 
Commons  last  session  with  regard  to  Church  and  corporations, 
and  no  change  in  our  foreign  policy.  I  have  sent  his  note  to 
Lyndhurst,  and  begged  him  to  call  here  to  talk  the  matter 
over. 

Powell,  a  Tory  solicitor  and  dme  clamnee  of  the  Speaker's, 
has  just  been  here;  he  declares  that  the  Tories  will  be  420 
strong  in  the  new  Parliament,  which  I  mention  for  the  pur- 
pose of  recording  their  expectations  and  being  able  to  com- 
pare them  hereafter  with  the  event.  They  have  already  put 
themselves  in  motion,  dispatched  messengers  to  Lord  Hert- 
ford and  Lowther,  and  probably  if  ever  these  men  could  be 
induced  to  open  their  purse-strings,  and  make  sacrifices  and 
exertions,  they  will  do  it  now. 

Six  o'clock. — Lyndhurst  has  just  been  here;  he  had  seen 
the  Duke,  who  had  already  opened  a  negotiation  with  Barnes 
through  Scarlett.  I  offered  to  get  any  statement  inserted  of 
the  causes  of  the  late  break-up,  and  he  will  again  see  the 
Duke  and  consider  the  propriety  of  inserting  one.  He  said, 
"  Why  Barnes  is  the  most  powerful  man  in  the  country."  The 
Standard  has  sent  to  offer  its  support;  the  Duke  said  he 
should  be  very  happy,  but  they  must  understand  that  the 
Government  was  not  yet  formed. 

November  2lst. — To-day  there  was  a  Council  at  St.  James's, 
at  which  Lyndhurst  was  sworn  in  Chancellor.  Brougham 
took  leave  of  the  Bar  this  morning,  and  I  hear  did  it  well. 


304  REIGN-   OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXV. 

The  King  speechified  as  usual,  and  gave  them  a  couple  of 
harangues;  he  said  it  was  just  four  years  since  he  had  very 
unwillingly  taken  the  Seal  from  Lord  Lyndhurst,  and  he  now 
had  great  pleasure  in  restoring  it  to  him.  He  was  all  King 
to-day — talked  of  having  "commanded  the  ex-Ministers  to 
retire; "  "  desired  Lord  Brougham  to  give  up  the  Seal,"  which 
is  true,  for  the  Duke  wrote  to  him  for  it,  and,  instead  of  sur- 
rendering it  in  person,  Brougham  sent  it  to  Sir  Henry  Taylor. 
The  King  compared  this  crisis  with  that  which  befell  his  father 
in  1784,  when  he  had  placed  the  government  in  the  hands  of 
the  Marquis  of  Rockingham;  he  said  that  the  present  was 
only  a  provisional  arrangement,  but  that  there  was  this  differ- 
ence, that  the  country  was  now  in  a  state  of  excitement  and 
disquiet,  which  it  was  free  from  then,  but  that  he  had  full  re- 
liance on  the  great  firmness  of  the  Duke  (here  the  Duke 
bowed) ;  that  the  Administration  which  was  then  formed  had 
lasted  seventeen  years  (of  course  he  meant  that  of  Pitt,  which 
succeeded  the  coalition),  and  he  hoped  that  this  which  was 
about  to  be  formed  would  last  as  long,  although  at  his  time 
of  life  if  it  did  he  could  not  expect  to  see  the  end  of  it. 

November  22cl. — I  read  Brougham's  speech  on  quitting 
the  Court  of  Chancery  this  morning,  and  admirable  it  is — 
not  a  syllable  about  himself,  but  with  reference  to  the  ap- 
pointment of  Pepys,  brief,  dignified,  and  appropriate.  Si  sic 
omnia,  what  a  man  he  would  be  ! 

November  23d. — This  morning  I  received  a  note  from 
Henry  de  Ros  inclosing  one  from  Barnes,  who  was  evidently 
much  nettled  at  not  having  received  any  specific  answer  to 
his  note  stating  the  terms  on  which  he  would  support  the 
Duke.  Henry  was  disconcerted  also,  and  entreated  me  to 
have  an  explanation  with  Lyndhurst.  I  accordingly  went  to 
the  Court  of  Exchequer,  where  he  was  sitting,  and  waited  till 
he  came  out,  when  I  gave  him  these  notes  to  read.  He  took 
me  away  with  him,  and  stopped  at  the  Home  Office  to  see  the 
Duke  and  talk  to  him  on  the  subject,  for  he  was  evidently  a 
little  alarmed,  so  great  and  dangerous  a  potentate  is  the 
wielder  of  the  thunders  of  the  press.  After  a  long  con- 
ference he  came  out  and  gave  me  a  note  the  Duke  had 
written,  saying  he  could  not  pledge  himself  nor  Sir  Robert 
Peel  (who  was  to  be  the  Minister)  before  he  arrived,  and 
eventually  I  agreed  to  draw  up  a  paper  explanatory  of  the 
position  of  the  Duke,  and  his  expectations  and  views  with 
regard  to  the  Times  and  its  support.  This  I  sent  to  him. 


1834.]       BROUGHAM  ASKS  FOR  THE   CHIEF-BARONSHir.         3Q5 

and  he  is  to  return  it  to  me  with  such  corrections  as  he  may 
think  it  requires,  and  it  is  to  be  shown  to  Barnes  to-morrow. 

On  the  way  Lyndhurst  told  me  an  incredible  thing — that 
Brougham  had  written  to  him  proposing  that  he  should  be 
made  Chief  Baron,  which  would  be  a  great  saving  to  the 
country,  as  he  was  content  to  take  it  with  no  higher  salary 
than  his  retiring  pension  and  some  provision  for  the  expense 
of  the  circuit.  He  said  that  he  would  show  me  the  letter,  but 
that  he  had  left  it  with  the  Duke,  so  could  not  then.  He 
knows  well  enough  that,  whatever  may  be  the  fate  of  this 
Government,  he  has  no  chance  of  recovering  the  Great  Seal, 
but  I  own  I  do  not  comprehend  what  object  he  can  have  in 
taking  this  appointment,  or  what  there  is  of  importance 
enough  to  induce  him  to  apply  for  it  to  his  political  oppo- 
nents, and  incur  all  the  odium  that  would  be  heaped  upon 
him  if  the  fact  were  generally  known.  He  would  not  con- 
sider himself  tongue-tied  in  the  House  of  Lords  any  more 
than  Lyndhurst  was,  for  though  the  former  took  the  situation 
under  a  sort  of  condition,  either  positive  or  implied,  that  he 
was  to  observe  something  like  a  neutrality,  he  considered 
himself  entirely  emancipated  from  the  engagement  when 
the  great  Reform  battle  began,  and  the  consequence  was 
that  the  secret  article  in  the  treaty  was  also  canceled,  and 
Denman  got  the  Chief-Justiceship  instead  of  him.  I  imagine 
that  the  King  would  not  agree  to  Brougham's  being  Chief 
Baron  even  though  the  Duke  and  Lyndhurst  should  be 
disposed  to  place  him  on  the  bench.  There  might  be  some 
convenience  in  it.  He  must  cut  fewer  capers  in  ermine  than 
in  plaid  trousers.  [As  might  have  been  expected,  this  in- 
tended stroke  of  Brougham's  was  a  total  failure.  Friends 
and  foes  condemn  him;  Duncannon  tried  to  dissuade  him; 
the  rest  of  his  colleagues  only  knew  of  it  after  it  was  done. 
Duncannon  told  me  he  neither  desired  nor  expected  that  his 
offer  would  be  accepted. — November  30^.] 

November  2<ith. — I  sent  Lyndhurst  a  paper  to  be  read  lo 
Barnes,  which  he  returned  to  me  with  another  he  had  written 
instead,  which  certainly  was  much  better.  The  Duke's  note 
and  this  paper  were  read  to  him,  and  he  expressed  himself 
quite  satisfied,  was  much  gratified  by  an  offer  Lyndhurst 
made  to  see  him,  and  proposed  a  meeting ;  so,  then,  I  leave 
the  affair.  I  took  a  copy  of  Lyndhurst's  paper,  and  then 
returned  it  and  the  note  to  him. 

At  night  I   went    to    Holland    House,   where    I    found 


306  KEIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [Ciur.  XXV. 

Brougham,  Lord  John  Russell,  and  Lord  Lansdowne.  Lady 
Holland  told  me  that  she  had  been  the  channel  of  communi- 
cation by  which  the  arrangement  of  giving  the  Chief  Baroii- 
ship  to  Lyndhurst  had  been  carried  on,  and  she  declared  that 
there  was  no  secret  article  in  it.  I  believe,  however,  that 
there  was  one  concluded  between  Brougham  and  Lyndhurst 
when  they  met  to  settle  it  in  Burlington  Street.  Leach 
brought  the  original  message  from  Alexander,  who  offered  to 
resign  in  favor  of  Lyndhurst.  I  hear  of  nothing  but  the 
indignation  of  the  ex-Ministers  at  the  uncourteousness  of  the 
Duke's  conduct  toward  them ;  but  though  there  is  too  much 
truth,  there  is  also  some  exaggeration  in  the  complaints. 
It  is  necessary  to  be  on  one's  guard  against  what  one  hears,  as 
I  verified  yesterday  in  a  particular  case. 

November  %6th. — Barnes  is  to  dine  with  Lord  Lyndhurst, 
and  a  gastronomic  ratification  will  wind  up  the  treaty  between 
these  high  contracting  parties.  I  walked  home  with  Duncan- 
non  last  night ;  he  declared  to  me  that,  though  he  could  not 
tell  me  what  did  pass  between  the  King  and  Melbourne,  what 
is  stated  to  have  passed  is  not  the  truth.  I  heard  elsewhere 
that  the  Whigs  insist  upon  it  there  was  no  disunion  in  the 
Cabinet,  and  that  Lord  Lansdowne  and  Rice  had  seen  the  Irish 
Tithe  Bill  (the  Irish  Chancellor  being  the  supposed  subject  of 
disunion),  and  that  they  both  agreed  to  its  provisions.  Dun- 
cannon  said  that  if  the  King  had  insisted  upon  the  dismissal 
of  Brougham,  and  had  consented  to  go  on  with  the  rest,  he 
would  have  put  them  in  a  grand  dilemma,  for  that  such  a 
requisition  would  have  met  the  concurrence  of  many  of  their 
friends  and  of  the  public.  He  thinks  Brougham  would  not 
have  resigned  even  then,  and  that  it  would  have  been  very 
dangerous  to  turn  him  out.  All  this  speculation  matters  little 
now.  He  is  thoroughly  convinced  that  the  present  appear- 
ances of  indifference  and  tranquillity  in  the  country  are  delu- 
sive, and  that  the  elections  will  rouse  a  dormant  spirit,  and 
that  the  minor  differences  of  Reformers  and  Liberals  of  all  de- 
nominations will  be  sunk  in  a  determined  hostility  to  the  Gov- 
ernment of  Peel  and  the  Duke.  He  says  that  the  Irish  Church 
must  bring  the  question  between  the  two  parties  to  an  imme- 
diate and  decisive  test ;  that  if  the  new  Government  are  beaten 
upon  it,  as  he  thinks  inevitable,  out  they  must  go ;  that  the 
return  of  the  Government  just  broken  up  will  be  out  of  the 
question,  and  the  King  must  submit  to  receive  one  of  still 
stronger  measures.  Duncannon  does  not  conceal  the  ultra- 


1831.]  POLICY   0?  THE  PEEL   GOVERNMENT  <$07 

Liberal  nature  of  his  opinions,  and  he  would  not  regret  the 
accomplishment  of  his  predictions.  It  cannot  be  concealed 
that,  there  is  nothing  very  improbable  in  them,  although  I  am 
far  from  regarding  the  event  as  so  certain  as  he  does ;  still 
less  can  I  partake  of  the  blind  confidence  and  sanguine  hopes 
of  the  Tories.  One  thing  is,  however,  very  clear,  that  the 
Whigs  and  the  Radicals  will  join  (as  Lyndhurst  said  they 
were  sure  to  do),  and  that  they  will  both  declare  war  to  the 
knife  against  the  Tory  Government.  The  best  hope  and 
chance  is  that  a  number  of  really  independent  men,  unpledged, 
mav  be  returned,  who  will  hold  something  like  a  balance  be- 
tween-the  extreme  parties,  resist  all  violent  propositions,  pro- 
tect the  King  from  insult  and  peremptory  dictation,  and  afford 
the  new  Government  a  fair  trial,  and  on  the  other  hand  de- 
clare at  once  and  without  reserve  their  determination  to  con- 
tinue without  interruption  the  course  of  rational  and  effectual 
reform,  making  a  virtual  abandonment  of  High  Tory  maxims 
and  acquiescence  in  the  desires  of  the  country  with  respect  to 
the  correction  of  abuses  the  indispensable  conditions  of  the 
present  Government's  retention  of  office. 

November  27th. — Yesterday  Lord  Wharncliffe  came  to  me. 
He  had  just  been  with  the  Duke,  who  received  him  very  cor- 
dially, and  showed  him  the  correspondence  and  minutes  of 
conversations  between  the  King  and  Melbourne.  He  says 
that  it  is  evident  that  Melbourne,  despaired  of  being  able  to 
carry  on  the  Government,  and  that  the  gist  of  the  King's  ob- 
jection was  the  nomination  of  Lord  John  Russell  to  lead  the 
Government  in  the  House  of  Commons,  which  his  Majesty 
said  he  could  not  agree  to,  because  he  had  already  declared 
Ins  sentiments  with  regard  to  the  Church  and  his  resolution 
of  supporting  it  to  the  bishops  and  on  other  occasions,  and 
that  Lord  John  Russell  had  signalized  himself  in  the  House 
of  Commons  by  his  destructive  opinions  with  regard  to  the 
Establishment.  I  should  be  glad  to  see  this  correspondence 
and  judge  for  myself,  but  I  can't  go  to  the  Duke  on  pur- 
pose. Wharncliffe  says  that  he  is  quits  satisfied  from  his 
conversation  that  the  Duke  is  thoroughly  convinced  of  the 
necessity  of  adopting  a  line  of  conduct  in  conformity  with  the 
state  of  public  opinion  and  determination  in  the  country,  and 
that  he  is  prepared  to  abandon  (as  far  as  he  is  concerned)  the 
old  Tory  maxims.  So  far  so  good  ;  but  there  is  no  concealing 
that,  however  this  may  (if  Peel  concurs)  facilitate  the  forma- 
tion and  secure  the  duration  of  the  new  Government,  there  is 


308  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXV. 

a  revolting  inconsistency  in  it  all,  involving  considerable  loss 
of  character,  lie  gave  no  indication  of  such  a  disposition 
during  the  last  session ;  it  is  all  reserved  for  the  period  when 
he  is  possessed  of  power.  It  is,  however,  at  present  all  very 
vague,  and  we  shall  see  what  his  notion  is  of  a  Liberal  course 
of  policy.  I  fear  that  he  and  Peel  are  both  too  deeply  com- 
mitted on  the  Irish  Church  question  to  suffer  them  to  propose 
any  compromise  likely  to  be  satisfactory  with  regard  to  it,  and 
then  the  difficulties  of  the  question  are  so  enormous  that  it 
seems  next  to  impossible  to  compose  them.  The  respective 
parties  drive  at  different  objects ;  one  wants  to  appropriate 
the  surplus  revenue,  the  other  wants  to  secure  to  the  parsons 
their  tithes,  and  while  they  are  quarreling  with  unmitigable 
fierceness  upon  these  points,  the  Irish  settle  the  question  by 
refusing  to  pay  any  tithe,  and  by  evading-  every  attempt  that 
is  made  to  procure  the  payment  in  some  other  shape  or  under 
some  other  denomination. 

The  Duke  told  Wharncliffe  that  both  he  and  the  King  were 
fully  aware  of  the  importance  of  the  step  that  his  Majesty  had 
taken — that  this  is,  in  fact,  the  Conservatives'  last  cast — and 
that  he  (the  King)  is  resolved  neither  to  flinch  nor  falter,  but 
having  embarked  with  them,  to  nail  his  flag  to  the  mast  and 
put  forth  all  the  constitutional  authority  of  the  Crown  in  sup- 
port of  the  Government  he  is  about  to  form.  I  am  strongly 
inclined  to  think  that  this  determination,  when  properlj*  ascer- 
tained, will  have  considerable  influence,  and  that,  provided  a 
respectable  and  presentable  Cabinet  be  formed  and  Liberal 
measures  adopted,  they  will  succeed.  Though  the  Crown  is 
not  so  powerful  as  it  was,  there  probably  still  remains  a  great 
deal  of  attachment  and  respect  to  it,  and  if  the  King  can  show 
a  fair  case  to  the  country,  there  will  be  found  both  in  Parlia- 
ment and  out  of  it  a  vast  number  of  persons  who  will  reflect 
deeply  upon  the  consequences  of  coming  to  a  serious  collision 
with  the  Throne,  and  consider  whether  the  exigency  is  such 
as  to  justify  such  extremities.  It  may  be  very  desirable  to 
purify  the  Irish  Church,  to  remodel  corporations,  and  to  relieve 
the  Dissenters  in  various  ways,  and  nobody  can  entertain  a 
shadow  of  doubt  that  all  these  things  must  and  will  be  done ; 
but  the  several  cases  are  not  of  great  and  pressing  urgency. 
The  fate  of  the  nation  does  not  depend  upon  their  being  all 
accomplished  and  arranged  off-hand,  and  if  the  Government 
which  the  King  may  form  exhibits  no  spirit  uncongenial  to 
the  public  feeling  generally,  and  wars  not  with  the  genius  of 


1S3L]  TIIS  DUKE'S  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  CRISIS.  309 

Reform,  which  is  dear  to  the  people,  it  is  my  belief  that  a 
great  majority  of  the  nation  will  shrink  from  the  mere  possi- 
bility of  a  direct  breach  with  the  King,  and  from  offering  him 
an  insult  in  the  shape  of  dictation  and  peremptory  demand, 
which  he  would  consider  himself  bound  in  honor  and  in  con- 
science to  resist. 

I  walked  home  with  Duncannon  at  night,  and  I  told  him 
this ;  he  seemed  struck  by  it,  but  still  maintained  that  Parlia- 
ment would,  in  his  opinion,  not  accept  the  new  Ministry  on 
any  terms.  If  Peel  makes  a  High  Tory  Government,  and- 
holds  High  Tory  language,  I  think  so  too.  and  I  can  scarcely 
hope  that  it  should  be  otherwise.  My  mind,  I  own,  misgives 
me  about  Peel ;  I  hope  every  thing  from  his  capacity  and 
dread  every  thing  from  his  character. 

November  %8th. — This  morning  I  got  a  letter  from  my 
uncle  the  Duke  of  Portland,  complaining  of  the  Weights  and 
Measures  Bill,  and  begging  that,  if  possible,  an  Order  in 
Council  might  be  passed  suspending  the  operation  of  the 
Act.  I  availed  myself  of  this  opportunity  to  see  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  and  went  to  the  Home  Office  to  consult  him  on 
the  contents  of  this  letter.  After  settling  this  business  I 
began  about  the  recent  negotiation  between  Lyndhurst  and 
Barnes,  and  this  led  to  a  discussion  of  the  circumstances  and 
situation  of  affairs,  in  the  course  of  which  he  told  me  every 
thing  that  had  occurred.  I  asked  him  if  he  had  sent  the 
u  Statement "  which  appeared  in  the  Times.  He  said  no, 
and  that  he  was  utterly  at  a  loss  to  guess  how  they  had  got 
it,  but  that  by  whatever  means  it  was  as  near  as  possible  to 
the  truth.  I  said  that  this  was  utterly  and  peremptorily  de- 
nied by  the  other  side,  on  which  he  called  Algy,1  and  desired 
him  to  bring  a  letter  which  he  had  written  to  certain  Peers  of 
his  party — a  circular — which  he  read  to  me.  In  this  he  ex- 
plained in  general  terms  (without  going  into  particulars)  the 
causes  of  the  break-up  of  the  late  Government  and  the  advice 
he  had  given  the  King,  and  he  told  me  that  he  had  got  papers 
and  letters  in  confirmation  of  every  word  that  he  had  written 
(Melbourne's  correspondence  with  the  King  and  the  minute 
of  the  conversation),  all  which  he  said  he  would  show  me 
then,  but  that  it  would  take  up  too  much  time.  However,  as 
we  proceeded  to  talk  it  over  he  told  me  all  that  these  papers 
contained,  or  at  least  all  that  was  material.  The  substance  as 

1  [Mr.  Algernon  Grevillc,  brother  of  Mr.  Charles  Grevillc,  was  private  secre- 
tary to  the  Duke  of  Wellington  both  in  and  out  of  oftice.] 


310  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXV. 

I  gathered  it  and  as  I  remember  it  was  this  :  Lord  Melbourne 
had  written  to  the  King  and  descanted  on  the  great  difficulty 
in  which  the  Government  was  placed  in  consequence  of  Lord 
Spencer's  death,  and  had  intimated  that  the  measures  which 
he  should  find  it  necessary  to  propose  to  him  would  produce  a 
difference  of  opinion  in  the  Cabinet — in  point  of  fact  that  it 
was,  to  say  the  least,  probable  that  Rice  and  Lansdowne  would 
retire.  When  he  went  down  to  Brighton,  and  they  talked  it 
over,  Lord  Melbourne  put  it  to  his  Majesty  whether  under 
existing  circumstances  he  would  go  on,  placing  himself  in 
their  hands,  or  whether  he  would  dispense  with  their  services, 
only  recommending  that  if  he  resolved  not  to  endeavor  to  go 
on  with  this  Government  (with  such  modifications  as  circum- 
stances demanded)  he  would  declare  such  resolution  as 
speedily  as  possible.1  The  Duke  says  he  did  not  actually  ten- 
der his  or  their  resignations,  did  not  throw  up  the  Govern- 
ment, but  very  near  it.  The  King  suggested  the  difficulty 
of  his  situation,  and  Melbourne  told  him  "he  had  better  send 
for  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  and  depend  upon  it  he  would  get 
him  out  of  it."  "  In  fact,"  said  the  Duke,  "  Melbourne  told 
him  I  should  do  just  what  I  did."  Accordingly  the  King  did 
send  for  the  Duke,  and  it  is  true  that  Melbourne  offered  to  be 
the  bearer  of  his  Majesty's  letter.  When  some  question  was 
asked  about  the  messenger,  Melbourne  said,  "  No  messenger 
will  go  so  quick  as  I  shall ;  you  had  better  give  it  to  me." 
The  Duke  said  that  no  man  could  have  acted  more  like  a  gen- 
tleman and  a  man  of  honor  than  Melbourne  did,  and  that  his 
opinion  of  him  was  greatly  raised.  I  told  him  that  I  thought 
Melbourne  could  not  have  given  his  colleagues  an  exact  and 
correct  account  of  what  had  passed,  for  that  they  could  not 
conceive  themselves  to  have  been  so  ill-treated  if  it  was  so, 
and  that  if  he  had  told  them  all  they  would  probably  have 
thought  he  had  abandoned  their  interests.  He  said  that  it 
was  evident  Melbourne  was  very  happy  to  disengage  himself 
from  the  concern.  (As  all  this  case  will  probably  be  discussed 
in  Parliament,  we  shall  see  that  the  debate  will  turn  princi- 
pally upon  the  fact  of  disunion,  and  I  have  little  doubt  that 
Rice  and  Lansdowne  will  declare  that  they  had  no  intention 

1  [This  statement  lias  certaialv  not  been  confirmed  by  the  subsequent  pub- 
lication of  papers  or  by  the  narrative  of  the  King  himself.  It  is  very  extraor- 
dinary that  the  Duke  "of  Wellington  should  have  been  led  to  believe  it;  but 
tliis  is  only  another  proof  of  the  extreme  difficulty  of  arriving  at  an  exact  knowl- 
edge of  what  passes  in  conversation  between  two  persons,  even  when  both  of 
them  are  acting  in  perfect  good  faith.] 


1834.J  THE  DUKE'S  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  CRISIS.  31 1 

of  quitting.  So  much  depends  upon  verbal  niceties,  and  the 
bounds  between  truth  and  falsehood  are  so  narrow,  the  par- 
tition so  thin,  that  they  will,  I  expect,  try  to  back  up  their 
party  without  any  absolute  breach  of  veracity.)  When  the 
King  was  reading  the  papers  to  him  (the  Duke),  and  tell- 
ing him  all  that  had  passed,  he  was  in  a  great  fright  lest  the 
Duke  should  think  he  had  acted  imprudently,  and  should  de- 
cline to  accept  the  Government.  Then  the  Duke  said,  "  Sir, 
I  see  at  once  how  it  all  is.  Your  Majesty  has  not  been  left 
by  your  Ministers,  but  something  very  like  it ;  "  and  his  Maj- 
esty was  rejoiced  when  the  Duke  at  once  acquiesced  in  taking 
office. 

The  Duke  said  he  had  received  very  satisfactory  letters 
from  all  (or  many)  of  the  Peers  to  whom  he  had  written — from 
the  Duke  of  Newcastle  and  Lord  Mansfield,  the  most  violent 
of  the  Tories.  I  said,  "Are  they  ready  to  place  themselves 
in  your  hands,  and  agree  to  whatever  you  may  think  it 
necessary  to  do  ?  "  He  said,  "  I  think  they  are  ;  I  think  they 
will  do  any  thing."  He  told  me  that  affairs  were  left  in  a 
wretched  state  in  the  Treasury,  that  the  late  Ministers  were 
no  men  of  business,  and  minutes  had  been  proposed  to  him 
finding  fault  with  various  things  ;  but  he  had  refused  to  do 
any  such  thing,  and  he  would  repair  any  error  he  could  with- 
out casting  any  blame  on  others.  On  the  whole  he  thought 
every  thing  looked  well,  and  that  he  should,  when  Peel  ar- 
rived, put  the  concern  into  his  hands  in  a  satisfactory  state. 

It  is  perfectly  clear,  in  the  midst  of  assertion  on  one  side 
and  contradiction  on  the  other,  that  in  the  first  instance  there 
was  neither  plot  nor  plan  on  the  part  of  the  King  or  anybody 
else.  The  death  of  Lord  Spencer  really  did  create  an  enormous 
embarrassment,  which  Melbourne  felt  much  more  than  any  of 
his  colleagues;  and  though  he  told  the  King  that  "he  was 
ready  to  go  on  with  the  Government  if  such  was  his  pleasure," 
he  felt  no  desire  to  be  taken  at  his  word,  and  no  confidence  or 
expectation  that  the  arrangements  he  proposed  would  be 
palatable  to  the  King  or  of  a  permanent  nature.  He  seems 
to  have  been  candid  and  straightforward  in  all  that  he  said, 
and  to  have  contemplated  his  dismissal  as  a  very  probable  re- 
sult of  his  correspondence  and  conversations  with  his  Majesty. 
The  Irish  Church  has  evidently  caused  the  split ;  the  intended 
reforms  in  it  and  the  elevation  of  Lord  John  Russell  to  the 
post  of  leader  were  more  than  the  King  could  digest.  I  wish 


312  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXV. 

I  had  seen  the  papers,  for  the  sake  of  knowing  what  it  is  they 
proposed  to  the  King,  and  how  far  he  was  disposed  to  go. 

November  29th. — I  told  the  Duke  yesterday  what  I  had 
learned  from  George  Bentinck  (and  he  from  the  Duke  of 
.Richmond)  of  Lord  Stanley's  1  disposition.  He  is  not  at  all 
desirous  to  be  mixed  up  in  the  new  concern,  but  has  no  ob- 
jection to  take  office  under  Peel,  and  he  is  ready  to  listen  to 
any  proposition  that  may  be  made  to  him ;  but  he  is  very 
much  afraid  of  being  accused  of  dereliction  of  principle  by  his 
old  colleagues  and  friends.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  he 
would  reject  any  overture  unless  it  included  an  agreement 
that  the  Government  should  be  conducted  upon  Liberal  prin- 
ciples, and  unless  his  friends  were  invited  to  join  the  Govern- 
ment with  him.  The  Duke  took  very  little  notice  of  this. 

December  1st. — Went  to  St.  Paul's  yesterday  evening,  to 
hear  Sydney  Smith  preach.  He  is  very  good ;  manner  im- 
pressive, voice  sonorous  and  agreeable,  rather  familiar,  but  not 
offensively  so,  language  simple  and  unadorned,  sermon  clever 
and  illustrative.  The  service  is  exceedingly  grand,  performed 
with  all  the  pomp  of  a  cathedral  and  chanted  with  beautiful 
voices  ;  the  lamps  scattered  few  and  far  between  throughout 
the  vast  space  under  the  dome,  making  darkness  visible,  and 
dimly  revealing  the  immensity  of  the  building,  were  exceed- 
ingly striking.  The  Cathedral  service  thus  chanted  and  per- 
formed is  my  beau  ideal  of  religious  worship — simple,  intelligi- 
ble, and  grand,  appealing  at  the  same  time  to  the  reason  and  the 
imagination.  I  prefer  it  infinitely  to  the  Catholic  service,  for 
though  I  am  fond  of  the  bursts  of  music  and  the  clouds  of  in- 
cense, I  can't  endure  the  undistinguishabje  sounds  with  which 
the  priest  mumbles  over  the  prayers. 

I  heard  yesterday  that  there  has  been  a  breeze  between 
Duncannon  and  Melbourne,  arising  out  of  his  speech  at  Derby. 
This  was  in  answer  to  an  address  they  voted  him,  and  it  was 
exceedingly  temperate  and  reserved.  In  the  course  of  it  he 
said  that  "  he  had  no  personal  cause  of  complaint."  A  war- 
fare has  been  raging  between  the  Standard  and  the  Chronicle 
about  what  passed,  and  the  articles  in  the  latter  have  been 
supplied  by  Duncannon,  or  some  of  them;  these  are  at  va- 
riance with  Melbourne's  avowal,  and  they  are  very  angry  with 
him  for  what  he  said,  and  want  him  to  make  some  statement 

1  [Edward,  twelfth  Earl  of  Derby,  died  on  October  21,  1834,  from  which 
data  his  grandson,  afterward  fourteenth  Earl  of  Derbv,  assumed  the  courtesy 
title  of  Lord  Sanley.] 


1834.]  DINNER  TO  MR.   BARNES.  313 

(or  to  authorize  one)  of  a  different  kind  and  more  correspond- 
ing with  their  own  declarations  and  complaints.  This  he  re- 
fuses to  do,  and  they  have  been  squabbling  about  it  with  some 
vivacity.  All  this  induces  me  the  more  to  think  that  Mel- 
bourne has  never  told  his  colleagues  how  very  easily  and  con- 
tentedly he  gave  up  the  reins  of  Government,  not  intending  to 
deceive  them,  but  from  a  desire  to  avoid  exasperatiog  people 
whom  he  found  so  much  disturbed  and  so  bitter. 

December  2d. — Dined  with  Lord  Lyndhurst  yesterday  ; 
the  dinner  for  Mr.  Barnes.  He  had  collected  a  miscellaneous 
party,  droll  enough — Mrs.  Fox,  Baron  Bolland,  Follett,  Har- 
dinge, etc.  The  Duke  and  Lord  Chandos  were  to  have  been 
there.  Barnes  told  Hardinge  there  was  a  great  cry  getting 
up  in  the  country  against  the  Duke.  After  dinner  I  had  a 
long  conversation  with  Hardinge,  on  the  whole  satisfactory. 
He  said  that  he  had  been  instrumental  in  bringing  the  Duke 
and  Peel  together  again,  after  a  considerable  coldness  and 
estrangement  had  existed  between  them  ;  that  after  the 
failure  in  May,  1832,  when  Peel  refused  to  have  any  thing  to 
do  with  the  concern,  he  had  called  upon  him  and  insisted 
upon  taking  him  to  Apsley  House  and  spontaneously  con- 
sulting with  the  Duke  how  he  should  withdraw  from  the  busi- 
ness ;  that  with  great  difficulty  he  had  persuaded  him,  and 
together  they  went,  from  which  time  the  Duke  and  he  have 
again  become  friends.  He  is  convinced  that  Peel  will  at 
once  make  a  fair  and  cordial  overture  to  Stanley,  and  thinks 
it  of  the  greatest  importance  that  Stanley's  disposition  and 
probable  demands  should  be  ascertained  before  Peel  arrives. 
I  told  him  what  I  had  before  told  the  Duke,  and  what  I 
had  reason  to  believe  were  Stanley's  sentiments.  He  asked 
whether  Stanley  would  insist  upon  "Richmond  and  Ripon 
coming  in  with  him  ;  he  said  that  for  the  former  he  (Har- 
dinge) was  sure  Peel  would  never  admit  him  without  the 
Duke's  full  and  especial  consent,  which,  however,  he  has  no 
doubt  the  Duke  would  give  without  hesitation,  and  overlook 
any  personal  cause  of  offense,  to  facilitate  a  desirable  ar- 
rangement ;  that  there  was  some  dispute  among  his  friends 
whether  it  would  be  better  that  Stanley  should  join  now  or 
only  support  (if  he  would)  at  first  and  join  afterward.  I 
said,  "  Unquestionably  it  is  better  he  should  join  at  once,"  to 
which  Hardinge  assented,  though  he  added  that  many  thought 
otherwise,  that  if  Stanley  made  difficulties  and  declined  the 
junction,  he  was  persuaded  Peel  would  keep  nothing  open, 
36 


314  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXV 

and  would  not  make  provisional  arrangements  to  admit  him 
and  his  party  when  they  should  think  it  more  safe  and  con- 
venient to  unite  their  future  to  his.  What  they  would  like 
evidently  is  to  take  Stanley  and  Graham  and  wash  their 
hands  of  Ripon  and  Richmond,  but  I  think  they  will  be 
forced  to  admit  them  all,  for  Lyndhurst  owned  to  me  that 
he  did  not  think  they  could  stand  without  Stanley  ;  and  the 
King  is  so  anxious  for  it  that  if  Stanley  insists  on  terms 
which  are  not  very  unreasonable  (under  the  circumstances)  they 
will  not  be  refused.  Hardinge  said  that  four  seats  in  the 
Cabinet  would  be  a  large  share,  but  that  the  best  men 
among  them  were  prepared  to  make  every  sacrifice  of  their 
own  just  expectations  or  claims  to  render  any  arrangement 
feasible  that  circumstances  might  require,  that  "  all  was 
right  with  the  Speaker,"  and  as  for  the  High  Tories,  the  sooner 
they  cut  the  connection  with  them  the  better,  but  that  they 
(the  High  Tories)  were  now  at  their  feet. 

He  then  went  into  the  details  of  the  King's  case  with  hid 
late  Ministers — much  to  the  same  effect  as  I  had  before  heard 
from  the  Duke  and  Lyndhurst,  but  perhaps  rather  more 
clearly.  He  said  that  Melbourne  had  stated  to  the  King  that 
questions  must  soon  be  brought  under  the  consideration  of 
the  Cabinet  relating  to  the  Irish  Church  on  which  a  consider- 
able difference  of  opinion  prevailed,  and  that  if  the  opinion 
of  the  majority  of  the  Cabinet  should  be  acquiesced  in  by  his 
Majesty,  the  secession  of  two  or  more  members  of  it  would 
in  all  probability  follow  ;  that  if  the  desire  of  his  Majesty  to 
compromise  these  differences  of  opinion  and  prevent  any 
separation  should  have  the  effect  of  preventing  such  discus- 
sions in  the  Cabinet  as  should  lead  to  any  disunion  for  the 
time,  it  was  only  fair  and  right  to  own  to  him  that  it  would 
be  in  the  power  of  any  member  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons who  should  become  acquainted  with  the  difference 
of  opinion  which  prevailed  to  bring  the  question  to  an  issue  ; 
and  if  such  a  thing  should  occur,  the  resignations,  he  appre- 
hended, would  only  be  retarded.  The  King,  under  these 
circumstances,  asked  how  he  proposed  to  fill  up  the  vacancies 
that  would  thus  occur,  whether  from  any  but  what  is  called 
the  extreme  party,  and  whether  he  (Melbourne),  with  a 
knowledge  of  the  King's  sentiments,  could  advise  him  to  have 
recourse  to  Lord  Durham  and  others  of  the  same  opinions. 
Melbourne  acknowledged  that  he  could  look  nowhere  else, 
and  that  he  certainly  could  not  give  the  King  such  advice, 


1834.]  SIR  II.   HARDINGE   OX   THE   CRISIS.  315 

upon  which  he  said  that,  as  the  breach  sooner  or  later  ap- 
peared inevitable,  he  thought  it  better  that  the  dissolution  of 
the  Government  should  take  place  at  once,  and  he  preferred 
nukirgthe  change  during  the  recess,  when  he  should  have 
time  to  form  other  arrangements,  rather  than  have  it  forced 
upon  him  during  all  the  excitement  of  the  session  of  Parlia- 
ment. This,  I  think,  was  the  pith  of  the  thing,  and  in  my 
opinion  it  forms  a  good  case.  Hardinge  said  that,  if  the  King 
had  been  a  clever  man,  he  would  have  postponed  his  decision 
and  spun  out  the  correspondence,  in  the  course  of  which  he 
would  have  acquired  pretexts  sufficient.  This,  however,  ex- 
plains T^hat  the  other  side  means  by  insisting  that  there  was 
no  difference  of  opinion  in  the  Cabinet;  there  was  none 
actual,  but  it  was  on  the  prospective  disunion  so  clearly  an- 
nounced to  the  King,  and  impending  at  such  an  indefinite 
and  probably  inconvenient  time,  that  he  took  his  resolution. 
Melbourne  appears  to  have  been  bullied  into  a  sort  of  excul- 
patory letter  on  account  of  his  speech  at  Derby,  saying  that 
he  spoke  of  having  no  personal  cause  of  complaint,  because 
the  King  was  very  civil  to  him. 

December  5th.  —  The  dinner  that  Lyndhurst  gave  to 
Barnes  has  made  a  great  uproar,  as  1  thought  it  would.  I 
never  could  understand  the  Chancellor's  making  such  a  dis- 
play of  this  connection ;  but,  whatever  he  may  be  as  a  law- 
yer, and  how  great  soever  in  his  wig,  I  suspect  that  he  is  de- 
ficient in  knowledge  of  the  world  and  those  nice  calculations 
of  public  taste  and  opinion  which  are  only  to  be  acquired  by  in- 
tuitive sagacity  exercised  in  the  daily  communion  of  social  life. 

Melbourne  has  had  to  make  another  speech,  which  smells 
of  the  recent  reproaches  of  his  colleagues ;  without  exactly 
recanting  what  he  had  said,  he  has  amplified,  modified,  and 
explained,  so  as  to  chime  in  to  a  certain  degree  with  their 
assertions. 

Brougham  has  been  made  to  recall  his  letter  offering  to 
be  Chief  Baron.  It  matters  not  what  he  does  for  the  pres- 
ent ;  his  star  is  totally  eclipsed,  but  not,  I  think,  forever 
quenched ;  his  vast  abilities  must  find  scope  and  produce  ef- 
fect. It  is  true  he  can  never  thoroughly  inspire  confidence, 
but,  if  adversity  teaches  him  wisdom,  and  cools  the  efferves- 
cence of  his  temper  and  imagination,  nothing  can  prevent  his 
political  resurrection,  though  not  in  "all  his  original  bright- 
ness." 

December  6th. — The  Chancellor  called  on  me  yesterday 


316  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXV. 

about  getting  young  Disraeli  into  Parliament  (through  the 
means  of  George  Bentinck)  l  for  Lynn.  I  had  told  him  George 
wanted  a  good  man  to  assist  in  turning  out  William  Lennox, 
and  he  suggested  the  above-named  gentleman,  whom  he 
called  a  friend  of  Chandos.  His  political  principles  must, 
however,  be  in  abeyance,  for  he  said  that  Durham  was  doing 
all  he  could  to  get  him  by  the  offer  of  a  seat,  and  so  forth  ;  if, 
therefore,  he  is  undecided  and  wavering  between  Chandos 
and  Durham,  he  must  be  a  mighty  impartial  personage.  I 
don't  think  such  a  man  will  do,  though  just  such  as  Lyndhurst 
would  be  connected  with. 

Melbourne's  two  speeches  at  Derby,  and  the  history  con- 
nected with  them,  exhibit  him  in  a  very  discreditable  and 
lamentable  point  of  view — compelled  by  the  menaces  and  re- 
proaches of  Duncannon  and  the  rest  to  eat  his  words  ;  and  all 
this  transacted  by  a  sort  of  negotiation  and  through  the  me- 
diation of  his  vulgar  secretary,  Tom  Young,  and  Mrs.  Larte 
Fox.  Such  a  thing  it  is  to  be  without  firmness  and  decision 
of  character.  Melbourne  is  a  gentleman,  liberal  and  straight- 
forward, with  no  meanness,  and  incapable  of  selfish  trickery 
and  intrigue ;  but  he  is  habitually  careless  and  insouciant, 
loves  ease,  and  hates  contests  and  squabbles,  and,  though  he 
would  never  tell  a  lie,  he  has  probably  not  that  stern  and  rigid 
regard  for  truth  which  would  make  him  run  any  risk  rather 
than  that  of  concealing  any  thing,  or  suifering  a  false  impres- 
sion to  be  formed  or  conveyed  with  respect  to  any  matter  he 
might  be  concerned  in. 

Lyndhurst  told  me  that  Peel's  letter  was  short  and  cau- 
tious, but  satisfactory.  He  (Lyndhurst)  is  doino-  all  he  can  to 
draw  closer  the  connection  between  the  Times  and  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  communicates  constantly  with  Barnes.  He  said 
they  must  make  a  liberal  and  comprehensive  Government,  and 
sketched  an  outline  of  such  a  Cabinet  as  he  would  like — four 
Stanleys,  six  of  their  own  people,  and  two  High  Tories,  Chan- 
dos certainly,  and  Knatchbull  probably ;  but  even  if  Stanley's 
other  scruples  can  be  got  over,  how  is  he  to  be  induced  to 
unite  with  Chandos  and  Knatchbull  or  any  such  men  I  guess 
not.  However,  the  time  is  drawing  very  near. 

December  ^th. — In  a  letter  from  the  Duke  of  Portland  to 
George  Bentinck  yesterday  he  says  that  the  Duke  of  Nevvcas- 

1  [Lord  George  Eentinck  was  member  for  Lynn  Kegis.  It  is  curious  that 
this,  the  first  mention  of  Mr.  Disraeli  in  political  life,  should  have  originated 
with  the  man  who  afterward  became  his  most  powerful  coadjutor  and  ally.] 


1834.]        LORD   JOHX  RUSSELL'S   SPEECH  AT   TOTXESS.  317 

tie  had  been  there  the  day  before,  had  talked  politics,  and  de- 
clared that  in  his  opinion  the  leaders  of  his  party  ought  not  to 
give  way  upon  any  one  point.  This  is  so  different  from  what 
the  Duke  of  Wellington  understood  from  his  letter  to  him 
that  I  sent  the  letter  to  the  Duke,  and  afterward  1  met  him. 
He  said  the  Duke  of  Portland  must  be  mistaken,  for  the  Duke 
of  Newcastle's  letter  to  him  was  quite  in  another  sense.  This 
is  one  of  the  silliest  of  the  High  Tories,  but  there  will  yet  be 
some  trouble  with  the  tribe.  John  Russell,  in  a  speech  some- 
where, has  made  assertions  still  more  positive  and  unqualified 
than  Melbourne's,  which,  if  correct,  throw  over  the  King  and 
his  case.  There  is  a  fearful  lie  somewhere,  which  I  suppose 
will  come  out  in  time.  It  is  impossible  to  make  up  one's 
mind  in  the  midst  of  statements  so  different  and  yet  so  posi- 
tive. George  Bentinck  sent  to  Sturges  Bourne  to  know  if  he 
would  come  in  for  Lynn,  but  he  declined.  Disraeli  he  won't 
hear  of. 

December  8th. — I  read  John  Russell's  speech  at  Totness 
last  night ;  it  was  a  very  masterly  performance,  suitable  to 
the  occasion,  and  effective.  He  endeavored  to  establish 
these  points :  first,  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington  had  con- 
tinually opposed  all  Reform  measures  and  been  the  enemy 
of  all  Reform  principles ;  secondly,  that  they  (the  late  Gov- 
ernment) had  done  a  great  deal,  without  doing  too  much ; 
and  thirdly,  that  there  really  had  occurred  no  circumstances 
in  the  Cabinet,  or  with  the  King,  sufficient  to  account  for 
their  summary  dismissal.  There  is  no  denying  that  his  first 
position  is  incontrovertible,  that  he  makes  out  a  very  fair 
case  for  his  second,  and  his  argument  on  the  third  throws 
great  doubt  upon  the  matter  in  my  mind,  having  previously 
had  no  doubt  that  the  King  had  a  good  case  to  show  to  the 
world.  It  is  not  so  much  the  Duke's  opposition  to  this  or 
that  particular  measure,  but  the  whole  tenor  of  his  conduct 
and  opinions,  which  it  puts  one  in  despair  to  look  at.  There 
would  be  no  gross  inconsistency  in  his  maintaining  our  foreign 
relations  in  their  present  state,  notwithstanding  his  repeated 
attacks  upon  Palmerston's  policy.  He  need  not  refuse  to 
suffer  any  legislative  interference  with  the  Church,  English 
or  Irish,  merely  because  he  opposed  the  Tithe  Bill  last  year 
(great,  by-the-way,  as  I  always  thought  that  blunder  was,  and 
as  events  will  prove  it  to  have  been),  but  in  his  opposition 
to  the  one  or  the  other  we  look  in  vain  for  some  saving 
declaration  to  prove  that  it  is  to  the  specific  measure  he  is 


318  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXV. 

hostile,  and  not  to  the  principles  from  which  it  emanates.  If 
he  now  comes  into  office  with  a  resolution  to  carry  on  the 
investigations  that  have  been  set  on  foot,  and  to  propose 
various  measures  of  reform  in  consequence  of  them,  how- 
ever wisely  he  may  act  in  bending  to  circumstances,  there  is 
no  escaping  from  the  fact  that  his  conduct  in  opposition  and 
in  office  is  as  different  as  light  from  darkness,  and  that  he 
adopts  when  in  office  those  principles  in  the  gross  which  lie 
utterly  repudiates  and  opposes  with  all  his  might  when  he 
is  out.  I  should  like  much  to  have  a  conversation  with  the 
Duke,  and  (if  it  were  possible  to  speak  so  freely  to  him)  to 
set  before  him  all  the  apparent  inconsistencies  of  his  conduct, 
to  trace  his  political  career  step  by  step,  and  tell  him  con- 
cisely all  that  he  may  have  read  scattered  through  a  hundred 
newspapers,  and  then  hear  what  he  would  say,  what  his 
notions  are  of  political  honor  and  consistency,  and  how  he 
reconciles  his  general  conduct  with  these  maxims.  I  am 
persuaded  that  he  deludes  himself  by  some  process  of  ex- 
traordinary false  reasoning,  and  that  the  habits  of  intense 
volition,  jumbled  up  with  party  prejudices,  old  associations, 
and  exposure  to  never-ceasing  flattery,  have  produced  the 
remarkable  result  we  see  in  his  conduct  ;  notwithstanding  the 
enormous  blunders  he  has  committed,  and  his  numerous  and 
flagrant  inconsistencies,  he  has  never  lost  his  confidence  in 
himself,  and  what  is  more  curious,  has  contrived  to  retain 
that  of  a  host  of  followers.  In  each  particular  act,  and  on 
every  fresh  occasion,  there  appear  in  him  a  decision,  single- 
ness of  purpose,  and  straightforwardness,  which  are  insep- 
arable from  a  conviction  of  being  in  the  right,  and  he  never 
seems  to  apprehend  for  a  moment  that  he  can  be  liable  to 
the  imputation  of  any  selfish  or  dishonorable  motive.  And 
strange  and  paradoxical  as  it  may  appear,  I  do  not  think  he 
is  justly  liable  to  it,  except  when  he  is  under  the  influence  of 
some  strong  personal  feeling.  Such  was  his  jealousy  and 
dislike  of  Canning,  and  this  led  him  into  perhaps  the  most 
enormous  of  all  his  political  misdeeds,  the  overthrow  of  the 
Corn  Bill  of  1827.  Upon  other  occasions  I  attribute  his 
conduct  to  the  circumstance  of  his  being  governed  by  one 
leading  idea,  and  to  his  incapability  of  taking  enlarged  and 
comprehensive  views  of  political  affairs,  such  as  embrace  not 
only  the  complex  relations  of  the  present,  but  the  ostensible 
probabilities  of  the  future.  His  judgment,  instead  of  being 
determined  by  profound  habits  of  reflection,  an  extensive 


1834.]  THE  FIRST   COUNCIL.  319 

knowledge  of  history,  and  accurate  acquaintance  with  human 
nature,  seems  to  be  wholly  influenced  by  his  own  wishes  and 
his  own  conception  of  what  the  exigencies  of  the  moment 
require.  It  would  not  be  difficult,  I  think,  and  perhaps  I 
may  hereafter  attempt  to  apply  this  delineation  of  his  dis- 
position to  the  events  of  his  life,  and  to  show  how  the  leading 
idea  in  his  mind  has  been  the  constant  guide  which  he  has 
followed,  sometimes  to  the  detriment  of  the  best  interests  of 
the  country,  and  sometimes  to  that  of  his  own  reputation. 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

BIr  R.  Peel  arrives— The  First  Council— The  King's  Address— Lord  Stanley  and  Sir  ,T. 
Graham  decline  to  join  the  Government— Lord  Wharncliffe  and  Sir  K.  Knatchbull  join 
— The  Ministers  sworn  in — Peel's  Address  to  his  Constituents — Dinner  at  the  Mansion 
House— Offer  to  Lord  Koden — Prospects  of  the  Elections— Stanley's  Want  of  Influence 
— Pozzo  di  Borgo's  Views — Russia  and  England — Nomination  of  Lord  Londonderry 
to  St.  Petersburg— Parliament  dissolved — State  of  the  Constituencies — A  Governor- 
General  for  India — Sebastian!  and  St.  Aulaire — Anecdote  of  Princess  Metternich — The 
City  Elections— Lord  Lyndhurst's  View  of  the  Government — Violence  of  tho  Opposi- 
tion— Close  Contest  at  Rochester — Sidney  Herbert — Sir  John  Hobhouse's  Views — 
Anecdotes — County  Elections — The  Queen  supposed  to  be  with  Child — Church  Reform 
—Dinner  of  Ministers— Story  of  La  Ronciere — The  King's  Crotchets. 

December  Wth. — Sir  Robert  arrived  yesterday  morning  at 
eight  o'clock.  Great  was  the  bustle  among  his  clan  ;  there 
were  the  Rosses,  the  Plantas,  and  all  of  them  pacing  before  his 
door  while  he  was  still  closeted  with  the  Duke.  Sefton  came 
up  to  town  last  night,  and  declares  that  Lord  Stanley  has 
announced  his  intention  of  supporting  Wood  for  Lancashire 
and  opposing  Francis  Egerton,  which,  if  true,  is  ominous 
against  a  junction  with  Peel. 

December  11  £A. — A  Council  yesterday.  The  King  insisted 
upon  giving  Peel  the  seal  of  the  Exchequer  in  Council, 
though  it  was  not  necessary.  His  object  was  to  make  a 
speech.  The  Chief-Justice,  who  was  trying  a  cause  at 
Westminster,  kept  us  waiting,  and  at  last  a  carriage  was  sent 
to  fetch  him.  Peel  made  his  first  appearance  full  of  spirits 
and  cordiality  to  the  numerous  greetings  which  hailed  him. 
He  told  me  that  he  had  seen  the  letter  which  I  had  written 
to  his  brother  Jonathan,  that  he  agreed  to  every  word  of  it, 
and  that  he  had  written  to  Stanley  in  exact  conformity  to 
what  I  had  said.  This  was  a  letter  I  had  written  to  Jonathan 


320  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVI. 

Peel,  giving  him  an  account  of  the  state  of  things  here,  and 
expressing  at  some  length  my  own  view  of  Peel's  situation 
and  of  what' he  ought  to  do.  When  Sir  Robert  got  to  Paris 
he  gave  it  to  him,  and  as  he  approves  of  it  I  am  certain  that 
his  Government  will  be  liberal  enough  ;  but  then  the  Irish 
Church  !  Stanley's  answer  may  come  to-day,  but  they  ex- 
pect him  in  town  at  all  events.  When  Denman  arrived  at 
St.  James's  he  had  an  audience  and  gave  up  the  seal.  The 
Council  was  assembled,  and  the  King,  who  had  got  his  speech 
all  ready,  first  asking  the  Duke  of  Wellington  if  he  should  go 
on,  to  which  the  Duke  assented,  delivered  himself  "  in  apt 
and  gracious  terms."  It  really  was  (however  superfluous)  not 
at  all  ill  done,  recapitulating  what  everybody  knows,  declar- 
ing that  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  now  Minister  of  this  country  and 
thanking  the  Duke  of  Wellington  in  his  own  name  and  in 
that  of  the  country  for  the  part  he  had  taken  and  for  the  man 
ner  in  which  he  had  conducted  the  public  business  during  the 
interval ;  he  said  that  he  should  request  him  to  hold  the  seals 
of  the  three  offices  for  a  few  days  longer.  He  was  not  ridic- 
ulous to-day.  With  regard  to  Lynn,  I  have  handed  George 
Bentinck  over  to  William  Peel  and  Granville  Somerset,  and  so 
washed  my  hands  of  it. 

December  1.3th. — Stanley  has  declined ;  I  know  not  in 
what  terms,  but  it  is  said  courteous.  Now,  then,  nothing  re- 
mains but  a  Tory  Government ;  the  Whigs  are  triumphant 
that  Stanley  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  Lord  Grey, 
who  was  moderate,  has  been  lashed  into  fury  by  their  put- 
ting up  Liddell  for  Northumberland.  Charles  Grey  at  Holland 
House  the  other  night  threw  them  all  into  dismay  by  the 
language  he  held — "  that  if  the  Duke  and  Peel  followed  bis 
father's  steps,  and  adopted  Liberal  measures,  he  should  sup- 
port them."  Lady  Holland  was  almost  in  fits,  and  Allen  in 
convulsions. 

December  14£A. — Lord  Wharncliffe,  to  his  great  joy,  Avas 
sent  for  by  Peel  yesterday,  and  very  civilly  invited  to  join 
the  new  Cabinet.  He  thought  it  necessary  to  inquire  if  he 
meant  to  be  liberal,  and  on  receiving  an  assurance  to  that  effect 
he  at  once  consented.  Graham  was  with  Peel,  having  come 
up  to  town  on  getting  his  letter,  but  he  declined  joining. 
Wharncliffe  told  me  that  the  correspondence  between  Peel 
and  Stanley  was  extremely  civil.  The  Cabinet  is  now  pretty 
nearly  completed ;  they  all  dined  together  at  Peel's  yesterday. 
I  asked  Wharncliffe  how  Sir  Edward  Knatchbull  was  to  be 


1834.]  STANLEY'S   POSITION.  321 

converted  into  a  Liberal,  and  he  said,  "  Ob,  there  will  be  no 
difficulty ;  he  is  very  reasonable."  It  would  be  (to  me)  a 
bitter  pill  to  swallow  to  take  Knatchbull ;  he  is  the  man  who 
led  that  section  of  High  Tories  which  threw  out  the  Duke's 
Government  in  1830.  The  Whigs  are  sorry  that  Graham 
does  not  join,  for  they  hate  him  and  want  to  be  rid  of  him. 
They  are  also  discomposed  at  a  letter  of  Stanley's  in  reply  to 
an  address  to  the  King  from  Glasgow  that  has  been  forward- 
ed to  him  to  present,  in  which  his  sentiments  appear  to  be 
alarmingly  Conservative. 

Stanley  and  Graham  will  support  the  Government,  and 
it  now  appears  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington  is  the  real  ob- 
stacle to  their  joining.  To  Peel  Stanley  has  no  objection ; 
he  has  spoken  of  him  in  the  highest  terms ;  but  after  the 
speech  which  the  Duke  made  when  Lord  Grey  went  out,  in 
which  he  attacked  him  and  his  Government  with  a  virulence 
which  gave  great  disgust  at  the  time,  Stanley  feels  that  he 
could  not  with  any  regard  to  his  own  honor,  and  compatibly 
with  his  respect  and  attachment  for  Lord  Grey,  form  a  part 
of  this  Government.  So  there  is  another  evil  resulting  from 
one  of  those  imprudences  which  the  Duke  blurts  out  without 
reflection,  thinking  only  of  the  present  time  and  acting  upon 
his  impulse  of  the  moment.  Spring  Rice,  whom  I  met  yes- 
terday, said  that  their  great  object  (in  which  they  hoped  to 
succeed)  was  to  keep  the  whole  of  their  party  together — their 
party  in  the  House  of  Commons,  of  course.  Whether  he  in- 
cluded Stanley  in  this  or  not  I  don't  know,  but  if  he  did  he 
reckons  probably  without  his  host. 

December  15th. — Met  the  Duke  of  Richmond  yesterday, 
who  came  to  town  for  the  cattle-show,  and  had  a  long  talk 
with  him  ;  he  said  they  had  discussed  the  whole  matter  (Stan- 
ley, Graham,  and  himself)  at  Knowsley,  and  decided  not  to 
join  ;  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  violent  speech  against 
all  the  members  of  the  late  Government  and  their  policy  made 
it  quite  impossible,  but  that  they  were  determined  to  support 
Peel  if  they  possibly  could ;  and  he  seems  not  apprehensive 
there  would  be  any  difficulty;  he  thinks  Stanley's  support  out 
of  office  will  be  more  valuable  than  if  he  had  joined  them,  and 
perhaps  under  the  above  circumstances  (for  I  had  forgotten 
the  Duke's  speech)  it  may  be.  Nothing  can  be  more  satisfac- 
tory than  the  state  of  feeling  between  them  all;  and  certainly 
all  those  who  would  have  followed  Stanley,  had  he  taken 
office,  may  find  as  strong  motives  for  supporting  Government 


322  KEIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVI. 

now  as  they  could  have  done  then.  I  told  Richmond  I  thought 
Knatchbull  was  so  High  a  Tory  that  I  did  not  sec  how  they 
could  make  him  a  Liberal.  He  said  he  was  not  at  all  strongly 
anti-Liberal,  and  that  he  had  had  the  option  of  being  a  mem- 
ber of  Lord  Grey's  Government,  he  having  been  himself  com- 
missioned to  offer  him  the  Secretaryship  at  War.  This,  how- 
ever, it  is  very  clear,  was  offered  as  a  reward  for  the  service 
he  had  done  in  giving  the  mortal  thrust  to  the  Duke,  and  as 
he  is  an  honest  man,  and  wanted  at  that  time  the  Duke's  life 
rather  than  his  purse,  he  was  probably  satisfied  with  his 
exploit,  and  never  would  have  done  on  any  terms  (what  Rich- 
mond and  others  did)  so  inconsistent  a  thing  as  to  join  a 
Reform  Ministry.  It  is,  however,  remarkable  that  this  should 
have  occurred.  See  what  it  was.  Knatchbull,  a  High  Tory, 
turns  out  the  Duke  and  a  Tory  Government,  and  lets  in  the 
Whigs ;  he  is  offered  office  by  the  Whig  Minister  to  whose 
triumph  he  has  been  instrumental,  refuses  it ;  and  afterward, 
on  the  exclusion  of  the  same  Whig  Ministry,  is  offered  office 
by  the  returning  Tory  Government,  which  he  had  four  years 
ago  destroyed,  and  takes  it. 

December  1  Gth. — A  great  field-day  at  Court  yesterday ;  all 
the  new  Ministers  sworn  in,  except  the  Colonial  Secretary, 
who  is  not  yet  appointed,  and  some  subordinate  officers. 
The  King  addressed  each  of  them  on  his  kissing  hands,  and  to 
Scarlett  he  made  a  very  pretty  speech  about  the  administra- 
tion of  the  law.  Lord  Rosslyu  was  substituted  for  Lord 
Aberdeen  (only  in  the  morning)  as  President  of  the  Council; 
why  did  not  appear,  but  I  had  learned  from  Hardingc  (in  a  con- 
versation I  had  with  him)  that  the  arrangements  would  in 
some  respects  be  only  temporary,  and  made  with  a  view  to 
the  subsequent  admission  of  Stanley  and  his  party  ;  the  nature 
of  their  communications  has  been  such  as  to  afford  a  very  fair 
prospect  of  that  junction.  Peel  is  much  elated  at  having  got 
Sugden  to  go  to  Ireland  as  Chancellor.  Lord  de  Grey  has 
been  asked  to  be  Lord-Lieutenant.  I  find  Stanley  in  his  let- 
ter to  Peel  said  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  speech  was  an 
obstacle  to  his  joining  the  Government.  These  scruples  they 
think  unreasonable ;  and  they  allege  his  own  thimblerig 
speech,  which  was  more  violent  against  the  Whig  Govern- 
ment and  more  insulting  than  any  thing  the  Duke  said  ;  but 
they  should  comprehend  that  this  speech  forms  one  of  the 
ingredients  of  the  difficulty,  as  it  in  fact  hampers  his  political 
conduct  by  putting  him  on  uncomfortable  personal  terms  with 
his  old  friends. 


183 1.]  PEEL'S   LETTER.  323 

December  20th. — Peel's  letter  to  his  constituents  has  ap- 
peared as  his  manifesto  to  the  country ;  a  very  well-written 
and  ingenious  document,  and  well  calculated  to  answer  the 
purpose,  if  it  can  be  answered  at  all.  The  letter  was  submit- 
ted to  the  Cabinet  at  a  dinner  at  Lyndhurst's  on  Wednesday 
last,  and  they  sat  till  twelve  o'clock  upon  it,  after  which  it 
was  copied  out,  a  messenger  dispatched  to  the  three  great 
newspapers  (Times,  Ilerald,  and  Post")  to  announce  its  arrival, 
and  at  three  in  the  morning  it  was  inserted.  The  Whigs 
affect  to  hold  it  very  cheap,  and  to  treat  it  as  an  artful  but 
shallow  and  inefficient  production.  It  is  rather  too  liberal  for 
the  bigoted  Tories,  but  all  the  moderate  people  are  satisfied 
with  it.  Of  course  it  has  made  a  prodigious  sensation,  and 
nobody  talks  of  any  thing  else. 

December  2-lth. — Dined  yesterday  at  the  Mansion  House ; 
never  having  before  seen  a  civic  feast,  I  thought  this  a  good 
opportunity.  The  Egyptian  Hall  is  fine  enough ;  the  other 
rooms  miserable.  A  great  company,  and  all  Tories  almost. 
The  Lord  Mayor  boasted  of  his  impartiality,  and  how  he  had 
invited  all  parties  alike,  but  none  of  the  Whigs  would  go. 
,Peel  spoke  tolerably,  but  not  so  well  as  I  expected ;  manly 
enough  and  in  good  tone.  In  the  speeches  of  the  others  there 
was  nothing  remarkable.  Ward  made  a  violent  speech, 
attacking  Grote  and  Lushington,  though  not  by  name.  The 
loyal  party  in  the  City  are  making  great  exertions,  and 
they  expect  to  bring  in  three  out  of  the  four  members, 
which  I  doubt,  not  because  I  know  any  thing  of  the  matter, 
but  because  they  are  generally  out  in  their  calculations. 
In  the  mean  time  the  vacant  places  have  been  gradually  filled 
up,  and  generally  with  Tories  of  a  bad  description — e.  g., 
Roden '  as  Lord  Steward,  which,  though  no  political  situation, 
would  do  harm  merely  from  his  name  appearing  in  the  list. 
It  never  will  be  believed  that  such  men  as  he — bigoted  and 
obstinate,  and  virtuous,  moreover — will  consent  to  join  Peel 
if  he  has  resolved  to  act  upon  principles  diametrically  the 
reverse  of  those  they  have  ever  sustained,  and  they  persist 
(the  Whigs)  in  asserting  that  every  fresh  appointment  of 
this  kind  is  a  new  pledge  that  he  means  to  govern  on  Tory 
principles. 

A  few  days  ago  I  fell  in  with  Hobhouse,  and  he  walked 
with  me  to  my  office.  He  told  mo  that  he  and  his  fellow 
Committee-men  at  E'.lice's,  astonished  at  the  confident  ex- 
1  Eolen  rofusol  on  account  of  his  health.—  January  Uh. 


324  REIGN  CF  WILLIAM  IV.  [Ciur.  XXVI. 

pectations  of  the  Carltonians  as  to  the  result  of  a  dissolution, 
went  over  the  list  scrupulously  and  jealously,  and  resolved 
to  know  the  worst ;  that  after  making  ever}-  allowance  they 
could,  and  excluding  all  doubtful  places  and  all  Stanleyites, 
they  found  themselves  with  a  majority  of  195  votes,  and 
deducting  from  that  50  men  who  might  be  Waverers,  and  on 
whom  it  might  not  be  safe  to  count,  they  still  found  145, 
which  they  saw  no  possibility  of  disputing.  On  the  other 
hand  the  Conservatives,  without  going  to  actual  numbers, 
retain  their  confidence,  though  I  confess  I  do  not  think  on 
any  sufficient  grounds  as  far  as  present  appearances  go. 
As  far  as  I  can  judge  by  the  slight  indications  which  reach 
me,  the  managers  of  the  late  Government  are  acting  with 
great  dexterity,  and  I  begin  to  think  that  Rice's  expectation 
of  being  able  to  hold  together  the  whole  of  those  who  are 
not  with  the  new  Government  is  not  so  chimerical  as  I  at 
first  imagined.  Although  there  is  a  little  feeling  for  the 
ex-Ministry  and  no  excitement  in  the  country,  there  is  a  calm 
which  is  quite  as  alarming  to  the  hopes  of  one  party  as  it  is 
represented  to  be  expressive  with  regard  to  the  power  of  the 
other,  for  unless  some  enthusiasm  can  be  created,  some  loyal 
motion  to  disturb  the  inertia  of  the  mass,  it  must  be  considered 
as  standing  much  in  the  same  situation  as  before,  and  that 
certainly  is  not  one  favorable  to  the  desires  and  pretensions  of 
the  Conservative  Government.  Then  within  this  day  or  two 
there  appear  indications  of  a  disposition  to  hold  off  on  the 
p:irt  of  Stanley  and  Graham,  if  not  to  join  with  their  old 
friends,  which  might  well  alarm  any  watchful  an.d  anxious 
mind.  Stanley's  speech  at  Glasgow  contained  not  a  syllable 
expressive  of  regard  for  the  royal  prerogative  or  of  respect  for 
Peel,  or  of  a  disposition  to  try  the  new  Government,  but  ex- 
travagant compliments  to  Lord  Grey,  and  Whig  language 
generally.  I  asked  Hardinge  last  night  what  he  thought  of  it, 
and  he  said  it  struck  him  as  "  too  Whiggish."  I  then  told  him 
that  I  was  struck  in  like  manner,  and  that  I  had  seen  a  letter 
from  Graham  in  the  morning,  the  tone  of  which  I  did  not  at 
all  like.  It  was  to  George  Bentinck  about  the  Lynn  election, 
for  which  he  was  to  endeavor  to  find  a  man,  and  failed.  He 
said  that  Stanley's  speech  was  very  good ;  blamed  the  com- 
position of  the  new  Government,  which  would  not  give 
satisfaction,  though  it  must  always  be  remembered  that  Peel 
had  made  use  of  the  old  materials  because  he  could  not  pro- 
cure new  ones ;  said  that  people  were  now  beginning  to  dis 


1834.]  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  ELECTION.  325 

• 

cover  that  the  Whigs  need  not  be  reduced  to  the  alternative 
of  joining  with  the  Radicals  or  the  Tories,  and  that  when  a 
standard  was  set  up  (Stanley's  of  course)  on  Conservatively 
Liberal  principles  he  thought  plenty  would  be  found  to  join  it. 
It  is,  therefore,  very  questionable  what  coarse  Stanley  will 
pursue,  even  though  a  party  may  range  itself  under  him, 
which  I  doubt,  and  no  position  can  be  much  worse  than  this 
Government  would  be  in  if  they  were  to  hold  office  at  his  dis- 
cretion, and  only  while  he  should  be  pleased  to  throw  his 
weight  into  their  scale.  As  far  as  one  can  judge,  his  weight 
will  be  small ;  for  it  is  very  remarkable  that,  while  for  some 
weeks  George  Bentinck  has  been  endeavoring  to  find  a  Stan- 
leyite  candidate  for  Lynn,  who  would  be  brought  in  without 
trouble  or  expense,  though  he  has  ransacked  the  Bar  and  ap- 
plied to  Richmond,  Ripon,  Graham,  and  Stanley  himself,  no 
such  man  can  be  found.  There  are  Whigs  and  Tories  in  abun- 
dance, but  not  one  man  who  will  come  into  Parliament  as  a 
follower  of  Stanley  and  owing  his  seat  to  the  patronage  of  the 
Duke  of  Richmond. 

It  is  the  fashion  to  consider  Peel's  speech  at  the  Mansion 
House  less  Liberal  in  tone  and  indicative  of  less  confidence 
than  his  letter  to  Tamworth.  I  don't  perceive  much  differ- 
ence. Lord  Roden  has  refused  to  be  Lord  Steward,  but  the 
invitation  has  done  the  mischief.  Lord  Haddington  goes  to 
Ireland,  after  making  many  difficulties,  but  finishing  by  liking 
the  appointment.  Both  parties  remain  equally  confident  as  to 
the  result  of  the  elections ;  the  Whigs,  as  it  appears  to  me, 
with  greater  reason,  and,  as  the  resolution  of  the  allies  (the 
Whigs  and  Radicals)  is  to  throw  out  the  Government  as  speed- 
ily as  possible,  and  without  caring  for  consequences,  I  don't 
see  how  they  ever  can  stand.  The  other  night  at  Holland 
House,  Mulgrave,  who  is  one  of  the  leading  men  of  the  elec- 
tioneering committee,  admitted  that  he  did  not  see  what  was 
to  follow  the  overthrow  of  the  Government,  but  that  the  dif- 
ficulty was  one  of  their  own  creating ;  others  of  them  assert 
that  Melbourne  or  Spencer  will  return,  and  another  Whig 
Government  be  formed,  but  they  leave  out  of  calculation  that 
the  Radicals  with  whom  they  have  joined  will  not  suffer  them- 
selves to  be  brushed  off  when  done  with,  nor  will  the  Tories 
come  down  to  assist  them  if  they  endeavor  again  to  make 
head  against  the  Radicals.  The  Tories  have  shown  them- 
selves a  reckless  and  desperate  party,  and  I  see  no  reason  for 
supposing  that  their  conduct  will  belie  their  character;  they 


326  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXVI. 

• 

overthrow  their  friends  from  revenge,  and  will  hardly  save 
their  enemies  from  charity ;  their  interest,  their  real  interest, 
they  seem  destined  ever  to  be  blind  to.  There  may  be  a  hope 
that,  having  put  themselves  under  the  orders  of  Peel,  they 
will  act  in  a  body  as  he  shall  direct  them,  and,  if  so,  they  may 
be  a  powerful  and  useful  Opposition,  and  I  really  believe  that 
he  will  not  turn  his  eyes  from  the  true  interests  of  the  coun- 
try, or  cease  to  regard  all  those  contingencies  which  may, 
under  dexterous  management,  be  eventually  turned  to  account. 
It  is,  however,  impossible  not  to  feel  greatly  disquieted  at  the 
aspect  of  affairs — at  the  mixture  of  bad  spirit  and  apathy  that 
prevails,  for  I  consider  the  apathy  an  evil  and  not  a  good 
sign.  Those  who  express  most  loudly  their  alarm  and  abhor- 
rence of  ultra  doctrines  make  little  exertion,  personal  or  pecu- 
niary, to  stem  their  torrent.  There  have  been  some  great 
examples  of  liberality.  I  heard  only  the  other  day  that  the 
Duke  of  Buccleuch  subscribed  £20,000  for  the  election  of 
1831 ;  Lord  Harrowby  (a  poor  man)  has  given  £1,000  for  this. 
The  fact  is,  it  is  in  politics  to  a  certain  degree  as  in  religion. 
Men  fear  in  the  one  case  in  the  same  manner  as  they  believe 
in  the  other;  they  have  some  doubts  in  both  cases,  but  no 
convictions.  Their  conduct  belies  their  assertions,  and,  when 
compared  with  that  which  they  observe  on  occasions  where 
there  is  no  room  for  doubt,  it  will  be  seen  that  their  want 
of  energy  or  decision,  their  various  inconsistencies,  proceed 
from  self-deceit,  which  is  just  strong  enough  to  permit  them 
to  try  and  deceive  others  with  actual  falsehood  and  hypocrisy. 
December  28th. — My  brother  Henry  came  from  Paris  a  day 
or  two  ago  to  take  the  place  of  precis  writer  in  the  Foreign 
Office.  Just  before  he  started,  old  Pozzo  gave  him  a  whole 
string  of  messages  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  adding  that 
he  would  give  the  world  for  an  hour's  conversation  with  hizn. 
These  communications  were  evidently  made  upon  a  supposi- 
tion that  their  opinions  were  generally  congenial.  He  said 
that  the  affairs  of  Belgium  required  particular  attention ; 
that  the  Belgians  were  grown  insolent,  and  meant,  by  defer- 
ring a  final  settlement,  to  avoid  paying  their  portion  of 
the  debt  and  to  keep  the  disputed  Duchies,  and  that  un- 
fortunately the  conduct  of  the  King  of  Holland  had  not  been 
such  as  to  entitle  him  to  assistance;  that  in  Germany  the 
spirit  was  good  and  tranquillity  prevailed  ;  in  Spain  nothing 
could  be  worse,  and  he  told  the  Duke  to  be  on  his  guard 
against  what  Alava  should  say  to  him,  "  qui  n'avait  pas  le 


1835.]  STATE  OF  FOREIGN  AFFAIRS.  327 

sens  coinmun,  mais  qui  6tait  d6vou6  au  Due,"  and  that  he 
might  endoctriner  him  a  little.  Henry  took  a  memorandum 
of  this  and  gave  it  to  the  Duke;  but  however  disposed  he 
may  be  to  enter  into  Pozzo's  views,  he  will  probably  soon 
be  obliged  to  take  a  tone  very  unpleasant  to  Russia,  for 
I  find  that  the  affairs  of  Turkey  are  in  such  a  state  that  they 
are  to  be  brought  under  the  immediate  consideration  of  the 
Cabinet.  The  great  object  of  the  late  Government  was  (and 
that  of  this  Government  must  be  the  same)  to  get  the  Porte 
out  of  the  clutches  of  Russia.  The  Sultan  is  a  mere  slave 
of  the  Emperor,  but  throughout  his  dominions,  and  the  Prin- 
cipalities likewise,  a  bitter  feeling  of  hatred  against  Russia 
prevails.  Our  policy  has  been  to  induce  the  Sultan  to  throw 
off  the  yoke — by  promises  of  assistance  on  one  hand,  and 
menaces  on  the  other  of  supporting  Mehemet  Ali  against  him. 
Hitherto,  however,  the  Sultan  has  never  been  induced  to 
bestir  himself.  It  is  evident  that  if  this  matter  is  taken  up 
seriously,  and  with  a  resolution  to  curb  the  power  of  Rus- 
sia in  the  East,  the  greatest  diplomatic  judgment  and  firm- 
ness will  be  requisite  in  our  Embassador  at  St.  Petersburg  ; 
and  how  under  these  circumstances  the  Duke  can  send  Lon- 
donderry, and  how  Peel  can  have  consented  to  his  nomina- 
tion, I  am  at  a  loss  to  conceive.  It  appears  just  worse  than 
what  Palmerston  did,  which  was  to  send  nobody  at  all.  In 
all  this  complication  of  interests  in  the  East,  France  is  ready 
to  act  with  us  if  we  will  let  her,  and  Austria  lies  like  a  great 
log,  favoring  Russia  and  opposing  her  inert  mass  to  any  thing 
like  mouvenient,  no  matter  with  what  object  or  in  what  quarter. 

1835. 

January  1st. — Parliament  dissolved  at  last,  and  all  specu- 
lation about  the  elections  will  soon  be  settled  in  certainty. 
It  is  remarkable  what  confidence  is  expressed  by  both  sides. 
Three  Tories  stand  for  the  City;  but  Ward  told  me  they 
rather  expected  to  run  their  opponents  hard  than  to  come  in, 
but  that  such  an  exhibition  of  strength  would  be  important, 
as  it  will.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  is  so  well  aware  of  the 
obstacle  that  he  is  to  Stanley's  joining  the  Government  that 
he  wanted  not  to  belong  to  it  originally,  and  he  is  now  medi- 
tating his  retreat,  in  order  to  open  the  way  for  Stanley.  It 
cannot  be  denied  that  he  has  acted  very  nobly  throughout 
this  business,  and  upon  nothing  but  a  sense  of  duty,  without 


328  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXVI. 

regard  for  himself.  Some  doubts  have  occurred  to  me  of  the 
vast  utility  of  Stanley,  and  his  being  so  entirely  without  a 
party  proves  that  he  is  not  held  in  very  high  estimation,  and 
though  I  should  be  glad  to  see  a  better  set  of  names  in  the 
various  offices  (which  are  for  the  most  part  miserably  filled) 
I  should  not  altogether  like  to  see  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
retire  out  of  deference  to  such  men  as  the  four  who  would 
succeed  him,  and  those  who  would  have  to  retire  with  him. 
I  heard  a  ridiculous  anecdote  of  the  King  the  other  day.  He 
wrote  to  the  Duke  about  something — no  matter  what,  but  I 
believe  some  appointment — and  added  d  propos  de  bottes, 
"  His  Majesty  begs  to  call  the  attention  of  the  Duke  to  the 
theoretical  state  of  Persia."  The  Duke  replied  that  he  was 
aware  of  the  importance  of  Persia,  but  submitted  that  it  was 
a  matter  which  did  not  press  for  the  moment. 

Yesterday  I  dined  with  Robarts,  arid  after  dinner  he  gave 
me  an  account  of  the  state  of  his  borough  (Maidstone),  and 
as  it  is  a  tolerably  fair  sample  probably  of  the  real  condition 
of  the  generality  of  boroughs,  and  of  the  principles  and 
disposition  of  their  constituencies,  I  will  put  it  down.  There 
are  1,200  voters  ;  the  Dissenters  are  very  numerous  and 
of  every  imaginable  sect  and  persuasion.  He  has  been 
member  seventeen  years  ;  the  place  very  corrupt.  Formerly 
(before  the  Reform  Bill),  when  the  constituency  was  less 
numerous,  the  matter  was  easily  and  simply  conducted  ;  the 
price  of  votes  was  as  regularly  fixed  as  the  price  of  bread — • 
so  much  for  a  single  vote  and  so  much  for  a  plumper,  and  this 
he  had  to  pay.  After  the  Reform  Bill  he  resolved  to  pay  no 
more  money,  as  corruption  was  to  cease.  The  consequence 
was  that  during  his  canvass  none  of  the  people  who  had 
formerly  voted  for  him  would  promise  him  their  votes.  They 
all  sulked  and  hesitated,  and,  in  short,  waited  to  see  what 
would  be  offered  them.  I  asked  him  what  were  the  new 
constituencies.  "  If  possible  worse  than  the  old."  The  people 
are  generally  alive  to  public  affairs — look  into  the  votes  and 
speeches  of  members,  give  their  opinions — but  are  universally 
corrupt.  They  have  a  sour  feeling  against  what  are  nick- 
named abuses,  rail  against  sinnicicres,  as  they  call  them,  and 
descant  upon  the  enormity  of  such  things  while  they  are 
forced  to  work  all  day  long  and  their  families  have  not 
enough  to  eat.  But  the  one  prevailing  object  among  the 
whole  community  is  to  make  money  of  their  votes,  and 
though  he  says  there  are  some  exceptions,  they  are  very  few 


1835.]  THE   CONSTITUENCIES.  329 

indeed.  Robarts  too  is  a  Reformer,  and  supports  all  Whig 
and  reforming  Governments ;  but  he  does  so  (like  many 
others)  from  fear.  What  he  most  dreads  is  collision,  and 
most  desires  is  quiet,  and  he  thinks  non-resistance  the  best 
way.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  other  constituencies 
materially  differ  from  this ;  what,  therefore,  is  the  result  ? 
Power  has  been  transferred  to  a  low  class  of  persons  ;  so  low 
as  to  be  dissatisfied  and  malignant,  high  enough  to  be  half- 
instructed  ;  so  poor  that  money  is  an  object  to  them,  and 
without  any  principle  which  should  deter  them  from  getting 
it  in  any  way  they  can :  they  may,  on  the  whole,  be  consid- 
.ered  as  disaffected  toward  existing  institutions,  for  when  they 
contrast  their  own  life  of  labor  and  privation  with  the  wealth 
and  splendor  which  they  see  around  them,  there  is  little  diffi- 
culty in  persuading  them  that  they  are  grievously  wronged, 
and  that  the  wrong  is  in  the  nature  of  the  institutions  them- 
selves. These  general  considerations  make  them,  therefore, 
lean  toward  those  who  promise  better  things,  and  strive  to  in- 
troduce changes ;  but  as  their  immediate  wants  are  always  up- 
permost, their  votes  are  generally  at  the  disposal  of  the  highest 
bidder,  whatever  his  politics  may  be. 

January  3d. — They  can  find  nobody  to  go  to  India.  Lord 
Ellenborough  (by  Peel's  desire)  wrote  to  the  Duke  and  asked 
his  advice,  at  the  same  time  suggesting  Sir  James  Graham. 
The  Duke  replied  that  he  thought  it  better  not  to  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  that  party  at  present ;  that  the  best  man  he 
knew  would  be  Lord  Heytesbury,  if  he  would  go,  or  such  a 
man  as  Lord  Fitzroy  Somerset,  whom  he  mentioned,  not  be- 
cause he  had  been  long  known  to  him,  and  had  served  under 
himself,  but  because  he  was  a  very  able  man,  and  the  best 
man  of  business  he  was  acquainted  with.  Kemp  refused 
it ;  Ellenborough  said  that  the  more  he  looked  into  Indian 
affairs,  the  more  clearly  he  saw  the  urgency  of  sending  a 
Governor-General.  Whether  by  this  he  means  to  imply 
that  Lord  William  Bentinck  has  done  ill,  I  know  not;  but 
he  is  always  said  to  have  done  admirably  well.  In  a  letter 
which  the  Duke  wrote  to  the  King,  not  long  ago,  he  told 
him  that  it  was  desirable  to  make  as  few  changes  in  the 
foreign  policy  of  the  Government  as  possible.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  confidence  of  his  underlings,  and  of  the  crowd  of 
fools  and  females  who  follow  the  camp,  it  is  clear  that  the 
Duke  and  Peel  are  both  sensible  of  the  danger  of  their  situ- 
ation. 


330  EEIGN  OP  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXVI. 

January  &th. — There  is  every  prospect  of  a  miserable  de- 
feat of  the  Conservatives  in  the  City,  which  will  be  doubly  dis- 
astrous, first  as  to  the  election,  which  is  an  important  one, 
and,  secondly,  because  it  will  go  far  to  neutralize  the  elfect  of 
the  famous  address  they  got  up.  This  is  owing  to  mismanage- 
ment. The  Committee  has  been  bad  and  negligent ;  then  they 
did  a  very  foolish  thing  in  ousting  Pattison"  from  Harwich  to 
make  room  for  Bonham;  if  they  had  left  Pattison  alone  (which 
Harris  had,  I  believe,  pledged  himself  should  be  done),  Lyall 
would  have  come  in  for  the  City,  and  perhaps  Ward,  too;  but 
when  the  electioneering  affairs  are  left  to  William  Peel,  Ross, 
and  Granville  Somerset,  no  wonder  there  is  not  much  dexterity 
and  finesse  displayed.  I  have  published  a  pamphlet  to  help 
them  ;  but  as  I  never  put  my  name  to  my  pamphlets,  of  course 
nobody  reads  them. 

January  5th. — Sebastian!  is  coming  here  asEmbassador — 
that  is,  unless  he  changes  his  mind  and  pleads  ill-health. 
The  French  Government  notified  to  us  his  appointment 
without  asking  our  consent,  and  when  the  Duke  stated  it  to 
the  Cabinet,  objections  were  made;  he  accordingly  wrote  the 
same  day  to  Bacourt,  stating  that  the  Cabinet  thought  the 
appointment  objectionable,  and  that  there  would  be  difficulties 
in  transacting  business  with  him.  The  French  Government 
express  surprise,  and  rather  insist  upon  their  appointment, 
and  as  ours  does  not  think  it  worth  while  to  have  a  dispute 
about  it,  he  is  to  come ;  but  we  think  they  have  behaved  very 
ill,  for  the  Duke  never  proposed  the  Paris  Embassy  to  Lord 
Covvley  till  he  had  communicated  with  France,  and  ascer- 
tained that  the  nomination  would  be  agreeable  to  the  King. 
It  was  expected  that  St.  Aulaire  or  Latour-Maubourg  would 
have  come  here.  It  is  of  Madame  de  St.  Aulaire  that  Talley- 
rand said,  "  Elle  cherche  1'esprit  que  son  mari  trouve."  (This 
anecdote  I  suspect  not  to  be  true,  or  not  true  of  Madame  de 
St.  Aulaire,  who  is  a  very  intelligent,  agreeable  woman,  more 
lively  and  with  more  finesse  d"1  esprit  than  her  husband.) 

St.  Aulaire  is  Embassador  at  Vienna,  and,  however  clever, 
he  either  wants  presence  of  mind  or  is  touchy,  as  the  follow- 
ing anecdote  shows :  Madame  de  Metternich  is  a  fine  hand- 
some woman,  ill  brought  up,  impertinent,  insouciante,  and 
assez  bourrue — an  reste,  quick  and  amusing.  She  went  to  a 
ball  at  St.  Aulaire's  with  a  fine  coronet  of  diamonds  on,  and 
when  he  came  to  receive  her  he  said,  "  Mon  dieu,  madame, 
quellc  belle  couronne  vous  avez  sur  la  tete  !  "  "  Au  moins," 


1835.]  RADICAL  VICTORY  IN    THE   CITY.  331 

said  she,  "  ce  n'est  pas  une  couronne  que  j'ai  voles."  Instead 
of  turning  it  into  a  joke,  he  made  a  serious  affair  of  it,  and 
went  the  next  day  to  Metternich  with  a  formal  complaint; 
but  Metternich  said,  "  Mais,  mon  cher,  que  voulez-vous  ?  Vous 
voyez  que  j'ai  e"pous6  une  femme  sans  education ;  je  ne  puis 
pas  1'empecher  de  dire  de  pareilles  sottises,  mais  vous  sentcz 
bien  que  ce  serait  fort  inconve'nant  pour  moi  de  m'en  meler. 
Allons  !  il  n'y  faut  plus  penser,"  and  so  turned  it  off,  and  turned 
him  out,  by  insisting  on  making  a  joke  of  the  affair,  as  St. 
Aulaire  had  better  have  done  at  first. 

January  1th. — Just  as  might  have  been  expected,  the 
Conservative  aandidates  in  the  City  are  defeated  by  an  enor- 
mous majority.  Pattison,  the  Governor  of  the  Bank,  the  Lib- 
eral candidate  who  came  in  second  on  the  poll,  having  been 
proposed  by  'Jones  Loyd,1  the  richest  banker  in  the  City,  and 
perhaps  the  richest  man  in  Europe.8  Such  outward  demon- 
strations as  these  unquestionably  afford  a  very  plausible 
answer  to  the  opposite  cry,  and  the  victory  on  the  Radical 
side  is  great  and  important.  Ward  told  me  they  should 
at  least  run  them  hard,  so  that  the  disappointment  must  be 
grievous ;  still  it  is  asserted  that  the  greatest  part  of  the 
wealth  of  the  City  will  be  found  in  the  columns  of  the  address 
— but  then  the  votes  are  in  the  other  scale.  The  elections,  as 
far  as  they  have  gone,  are  rather  against  the  Government,  but 
not  showing  any  material  difference  in  numbers — sufficient, 
however,  to  prove  that,  in  point  of  fact,  Peel's  declarations 
have  produced  little  or  no  effect,  and  that  the  various  consid- 
erations that  have  been  urged  on  the  country  and  the  appeals 
to  its  reason  have  been  all  alike  thrown  away. 

I  saw  a  letter  which  Barnes  wrote  to  Henry  de  Ros 
yesterday,  in  which  he  speaks  with  horror  and  alarm  of  the 
prevailing  spirit.  He  says  the  people  are  deaf  with  passion, 
and  in  the  abrupt  dissolution  of  the  late  Government  and  the 
bad  composition  of  this  they  will  see  a  conspiracy  against 
their  liberties,  and  mad  and  preposterous  as  the  idea  is,  there 
is  no  eradicating  it  from  their  brains.  I  am  afraid  this  is  too 
true,  and  though  no  alarmist  generally,  and  rather  sluggish  of 
fear,  I  do  begin  to  tremble ;  and  while  I  cast  my  eyes  about 
in  all  directions  to  see  what  resource  is  in  store  for  us,  I  can 
find  none  that  is  any  thing  like  satisfactory ;  the  violence  of 

1  [Mr.  Jones  Loyd,  afterward  created  Lord  Ovcratone.] 
3  [The  four  City  members  were  :  Matthew  Wood,  James  Pattison,  William 
Crawford,  and  George  Grote.] 


332  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [Cn.\p.  XXVI 

party  spirit  seems  to  blind  everybody  concerned  in  politics  to 
all  contingent  possibilities,  and  every  feeling  of  decency  and 
propriety  is  forgotten. 

Last  night  I  was  at  Lady  Holland's  ;  there  were  Lord 
and  Lady  Holland,  Mulgrave,  Seaford,  Allen,  and  Burdett. 
I  asked  them  if  they  had  read  Whittle  Harvey's  speech  at 
Southwark,  which  was  a  tissue  of  the  grossest  and  most  out- 
rageous abuse  and  ridicule  of  the  King  and  Queen.  They 
said  "  No,"  so  I  read  to  them  some  of  the  most  offensive  pas- 
sages. Not  the  slightest  disgust  did  they  express.  Holland 
merely  said  to  one  allegation,  '•'•That  is  not  true,"  and  Mul- 
grave laughed,  and  said,  "  Whittle  is  an  eccentric  politician." 

January  8th. — On  the  whole  the  returns  yesterday  pre- 
sented a  gain  to  Government  of  about  10  votes,  many  elec- 
tions turning  out  contrary  to  expectation  both  ways,  and  some 
very  severe  contests.  The  City  was  a  great  defeat :  the  low- 
est Whig  beat  the  highest  Tory  by  above  1,400.  It  is  remark- 
able that  many  who  signed  the  address  to  the  King  voted  for 
the  Radical  candidates. 

At  dinner  yesterday  at  Lord  Chesterfield's  I  met  the  Chan- 
cellor, whom  1  have  not  seen  for  some  time.  After  dinner  we 
talked  about  the  state  of  affairs.  "  Well,"  he  said,  "  will  it 
do  ?  what  do  you  think  ?  "  I  said,  "  I  don't  know  what  to 
think,  but  on  the  whole  I  am  disposed  to  think  it  will  not  do. 
I  don't  see  how  you  are  to  get  on."  "  What  do  you  think  of 
Peel  ?  "  said  he  ;  "  is  he  a  fit  man  for  the  purpose  ?  "  "  He 
is  a  very  able  man,  and  prudent."  "  Ay,  but  is  he  enough 
of  a  man  of  the  world  ?  does  he  know  enough  of  what  is  going 
on  iu  the  world  ?  "  To  which  I  said,  "  You  have  just  hit  upon 
the  point  that  I  have  been  lamenting.  He  has  not  lived  in 
the  world,  and  he  has  not  about  him  those  who  do,  and  who 
can  give  him  that  particular  sort  of  information  and  advice 
of  which  he  stands  in  need  ;  and  I  think  he  has,  in  great  meas- 
ure owing  to  this,  committed  a  great  blunder  in  forming  such 
a  Government  as  he  has  done ;  he  has  not  been  able  to  throw 
off  the  old  prejudices  of  keeping  to  his  party,  and  thought  it 
necessary  to  depend  upon  them,  when  he  ought  to  have  seen 
that  the  case  was  one  out  of  ordinary  rules,  that  the  support 
of  the  Tories  alone  could  not  maintain  him,  and  that,  if  they 
would  not  give  it  him  for  their  own  interest,  and  in  further- 
ance of  their  own  principles,  without  insisting  upon  being  in 
office,  though  he  might  not  be  able  to  get  on  without  it,  he 
would  still  less  be  able  to  get  on  with  their  support  alone.  In 


1835.]  CONVERSATION"  AT   CHESTERFIELD'S.  333 

his  place  I  should  have  told  them  I  could  not  tak3  them  in, 
that  if  they  would  confide  in  me,  and  let  me  help  the  country 
out  of  its  difficulties  in  my  own  way,  I  would  do  the  best  I 
could  for  it  and  for  them."  Lyndhurst  said  that  "  he  was  not 
much  consulted ;  "  that  if  he  had  had  the  formation  of  the 
Government  he  should  have  gone  to  work  very  differently ; 
that  he  would  have  had  a  small  Cabinet,  eight  or  ten  at  most, 
composed  of  new  men,  leaving  out  Aberdeen,  Goulburn,  Her- 
ries,  and  the  rest  of  that  description,  employing  them  if  possi- 
ble abroad,  or  if  not,  telling  them  that  it  was  necessary  to  lay 
them  on  the  shelf  for  a  time,  and  that  he  would  do  what  he 
could  for  them  at  a  future  period  ;  that  Ellenborough  had  told 
Peel  he  had  much  better  not  take  him  into  the  Government ; 
that  he  was  aware  he  was  not  popular,  and  though  he  might 
be  of  some  use  with  regard  to  details  of  business,  his  support 
out  of  office  would  (he  thought),  on  the  whole,  be  more  ser-% 
viceable  than  his  being  in  the  Cabinet.  Peel  said  that  his 
willingness  to  sacrifice  himself  only  made  it  more  incumbent 
on  him  not  to  permit  him  to  do  so,  and  insisted  upon  having 
him.  Lyndhurst  said  he  had  hoped  that  Sandon  would  have 
been  taken,  and  he  had  suggested  Lord  Carnarvon,  to  which 
Peel  replied  that  he  was  still  so  young  that  he  thought  he 
might  be  passed  over  for  the  present.  I  said,  "  Why,  it  is  the 
present  for  which  it  is  necessary  to  provide,  and  it  is  now  that 
he  might  have  been  made  available."  (Carnarvon  would  not 
join  on  account  of  ill-health.)  We  then  talked  over  what 
•  sort  of  a  Cabinet  might  have  been  got  together,  of  new  names, 
moderate  men,  few  in  number.  He  admitted  that  a  great 
mistake  had  been  committed,  and  that,  as  it  was  irreparable, 
so  it  would  very  probably  be  fatal.  He  praised  the  Duke  of 
Wellington.  I  said  I  would  not  have  taken  him  in,  or  have 
got  him  to  go  to  Ireland,  for  he  was  ready  to  do  any  thing  to 
advance  the  cause.  He  liked  this  idea  very  much.  I  reminded 
him  that  the  first  day  we  had  talked  over  the  matter  he  had 
admitted  that  it  would  never  do  to  bolster  up  the  old  concern 
again,  and  that  Hardinge  had  told  me  the  Tories  were  all 
ready  to  make  any  sacrifices  or  postpone  their  claims,  so  that 
such  a  course  as  we  suggested  need  not  have  been  difficult. 
I  told  him  of  Barnes's  letter,  and  of  his  fears,  and  what  he 
said  of  the  effect  produced  by  the  composition  of  the  Govern- 
ment. He  said  the  Times  had  behaved  admirably  to  them, 
and  the  Government  were  under  great  obligations  to  me  for 
what  I  had  done  in  that  matter.  I  told  him  I  was  glad  to 


334  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVI. 

hear  they  were  on  such  good  terms,  as  having  been  instru- 
mental to  the  connection,  which  1  had  no  doubt  had  entailed 
an  immediate  loss  on  the  proprietors  of  the  paper. 

He  asked  me  if  I  thought  the  Opposition  meant  to  refuse 
the  Supplies.  I  said  I  had  no  doubt  they  did.  "  Then  we 
must  go."  But  he  still  expects  they  will  have  300  votes  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  with  that  he  calculates  that 
they  may  struggle  on  with  one-half  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
the  House  of  Lords,  the  King,  and  a  large  proportion  of  the 
wealth  and  respectability  of  the  country.  It  would  be  diffi- 
cult, but  he  thought  they  might  get  on;  but  that  the  fact 
was,  there  was  no  going  on  after  the  transfer  of  power  to 
another  class,  which  the  Reform  Bill  had  effected.  I  said 
there  was  no  doubt  of  that,  and  that  the  Reform  Bill  had 
produced  virtually  a  complete  revolution  in  this  country. 
"  Ay,"  said  he,  "  much  more  than  that  of  '88." 

January  9th. — Dined  at  Holland  House;  they  are  satisfied 
with  the  elections.  Mulgrave  said  that,  out  of  the  present  re- 
turn, they  had  to  add  thirty  to  their  list  and  to  deduct  thirteen 
of  their  original  calculations,  giving  them  seventeen  more 
than  they  expected.  There  is  a  small  gain  to  the  Tories,  but 
nothing  like  enough.  It  cannot  do;  all  the  moderate  Whigs 
(for  it  is  not  a  question  of  Tories)  are  beaten  in  the  metro- 
politan districts.  Spankie's  admirable  addresses  have  insured 
his  defeat.  Duncombe,  immediately  after  an  exposure  of 
the  most  disgraceful  kind,  will  be  returned  by  a  majority 
doubling  that  of  any  of  the  other  candidates;  and  it  is  not  a 
little  remarkable  that  Duncombe  is  supported  by  all  the 
Dissenters,  even  the  Quakers,  with  whom  austerity  of  morals 
and  a  decent  behavior  are  supposed  to  have  weight — but 
the  rabid  spirit  of  disaffection  to  Government  and  rule  bears 
down  every  other  consideration,  and  these  "  enlightened 
electors  "  (as  their  flatterers  always  call  them)  are  frantic 
with  passion  against  every  thing  belonging  to  what  they  call 
"  the  aristocracy  "  of  the  country.  But  who  can  wonder  at 
these  people,  when  we  see  the  great  Whig  Lords  smiling 
complacently  at  their  brutal  violence  and  senseless  rage  ? 
At  Holland  House  they  talk  in  the  same  strain;  not  that  they 
utter  any  indecent  language,  but  they  are  passionate  for  the 
success  of  the  movement.  One  single  object  have  they — to 
eject  Peel  and  the  Tory  Government;  they  own  they  don't 
know  what  is  to  follow;  they  do  not  deny  that  the  move- 
ment must  be  accelerated,  but  they  don't  care;  they  say  the 


1835.]  TEE  ELECTIONS.  335 

Duke  is  responsible,  for  he  ought  not  to  have  accepted  the 
King's  commission,  and  then  Melbourne  must  have  been 
sent  for  again  the  next  day.  Now  they  must  take  the  con- 
sequences— that  is,  the  King  and  the  Tories.  They  said  last 
night  that  by  the  old  Government  the  movement  might 
have  been  checked;  by  any  that  can  be  formed  on  the  down- 
fall of  the  new  it  cannot — or  at  least  that  it  must  go  further 
than  it  would  have  done.  I  asked,  "Then  is  there  any  thing 
you  think  worse  than  advancing  the  movement  ?"  "Yes," 
cried  out  Lord  Holland,  "  making  the  movement  stand  still." 
"  And  do  you  mean  that  you  believe  there  is  any  danger  of 
that,  and  that  the  movement  (the  progress  of  improvement) 
ever  can  stand  still?"  "Yes,  I  do  believe  it,"  etc.  .  .  . 
Such  a  miserable  apology  for  their  insane  violence  puts  argu- 
ment and  reasoning  out  of  the  question;  they  are  resolved  to 
fight  for  power,  "  to  let  slip  the  dogs  of  war,"  ignorant  whither 
they  will  go,  and  careless  what  shall  be  their  prey. 

January  ~LQth. — Nothing  is  more  remarkable  in  these 
elections  than  the  confidence  of  both  parties  in  the  result,  and 
the  difference  of  their  statements  as  to  actual  numbers.  Bon- 
ham  who  is  now,  faute  de  mieux,  the  man-of -all-work  of  the 
Tories,  told  me  last  night  that  they  had  an  actual  majority 
on  the  returns  of  about  twenty,  whereas  I  went  through  the 
list,  and,  after  detecting  some  errors,  made  out  that  there  is 
a  majority  of  about  thirty  the  other  way.  The  Whig  lan- 
guage is  still  the  same  always,  and  everywhere — that  they  do 
not  see  what  is  to  happen  when  this  Government  is  out;  that 
no  daylight  appears,  but  still  that  out  it  shall  go.  They  own 
that  they  must  (if  they  return  to  power)  do  a  great  deal  more 
than  they  would  otherwise  have  done,  but  that  while  they  obey 
that  necessity,  they  make  it  easy  to  their  consciences,  because 
it  is  the  other  party  which  has  imposed  it  upon  them. 

January  llth. — The  Government  people  still  declare  their 
satisfaction  at  the  result  of  the  elections,  and  make  out  that 
the  numbers  are  tolerably  even.  The  contests  are  curious 
from  their  closeness.  Charles  Wellesley  lest  at  Rochester  by 
one,  Lushington  by  four.  There  is  a  great  number  of  similar 
cases ;  in  that  of  Rochester  it  is  more  remarkable  from  the 
accident  by  which  the  election  was  lost.  There  were  two 
ships  in  quarantine,  one  of  which  had  one  voter  on  board 
and  the  other  two;  they  had  both  sailed  the  same  day  from 
the  port  they  left,  but  one  had  been  longer  on  the  \xryage. 
The  ship  with  one  voter  had  a  right  to  be  released  on  the  9th, 


336  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXVI. 

the  last  day  of  the  election,  the  other  not  till  three  days  later. 
As  the  circumstances  were  the  same,  Sir  J.  Marshall,  the 
Superintendent,  suggested  that  both  might  be  released  to- 
gether, but  I  did  not  dare  relax  the  severity  of  the  restriction. J 
Rosslyn  was  rather  for  doing  it,  but  I  persuaded  him  it  would 
be  dangerous,  as,  if  the  election  should  turn  upon  it,  we  should 
never  hear  the  last  of  it,  especially  the  Duke,  to  whose  charge 
it  would  be  laid ;  and  the  election  actually  turned  on  those 
two  votes.  The  best  chance  that  I  see  is,  that  when  the  hour 
of  struggle  arrives  there  may  be  more  moderate  men  than  the 
Whig  leaders  are  aware  of — more  who,  without  supporting, 
still  less  joining,  the  new  Government,  will  abstain  from  taking 
a  violent  part  against  them.  This  is  my  only  hope,  for  as  to 
a  majority  I  have  not  the  slightest  expectation  of  any  such 
thing,  and  am  at  a  loss  to  conceive  on  what  they  count. 

January  12th. — Up  to  the  latest  returns  the  Tories  make 
out  that  they  have  a  majority,  or  at  least  an  equality ;  the 
Whigs,  that  they  have  a  majority  of  about  seventy.  The 
latter  calculation  is  nearer  to  the  truth,  and  it  only  remains  to 
be  seen  how  many  of  their  people  will  refuse  to  support  ex- 
treme measures.  Last  night  at  Holland  House  Mulgrave  was 
perfectly  furious  with  Charles  Fox  for  saying  he  would  not 
oppose  Manners  Sutton  being  put  in  the  chair.  It  has  been 
asserted  all  along  by  some  of  the  opposite  party  that  Peel's 
measures  have  been  influenced  (especially  in  the  composition 
of  his  Government)  by  a  desire  to  keep  the  Tories  together, 
and  prepare  a  strong  Opposition.  I  suspect  there  is  some 
truth  in  this,  for  I  can  account  in  no  other  way  for  the  strange 
appointments  he  makes,  and  the  undiluted  Toryism  of  his 
Government.  He  goes  on  the  old  aristocratic  principle  of 
taking  high  birth  and  connection  as  substitutes  for  other 
qualifications,  and  he  never  seems  to  consider  the  former 
sentiments  of  any  man  in  weighing  his  fitness  for  office.  He 
has  just  made  Sydney  Herbert  Secretary  to  the  Board  of 
Control,  an  office  of  great  labor  and  involving  considerable 
business  in  the  House  of  Commons.2  He  is  about  twenty-two 

1  [The  administration  of  the  Quarantine  Eegulations  is  vested  in  the  Privy 
Council,  and  exercised  by  the  Clerk  of  the  Council.] 

2  [The  injustice  of  this  remark  has  since  become  very  obvious,  for  no  man 
was  better  qualified  to  enter  upon  official  life,  or  to  run  a  great  career  in  it,  than 
Sydney  Herbert.     It  must  also  be  said  of  Sir  Eobert  Peel  that  he  was  ever  on 
the  watch  for  the  young  and  rising  statesmen  who,  he  said,  were  hereafter  to 
govern  the  country ;  and  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  men  who  have  since 
played  a  most  conspicuous  and  useful  part  were  introduced  by  Sir  Eobert  I'cel 


1835.]  PEEL'S   TACTICS.  337 

or  twenty-three  years  old,  unpractised  in  business,  and  neve* 
spoke  but  once  in  the  House  of  Commons,  when  he  made  one 
of  those  pretty  first  speeches  which  prove  little  or  nothing, 
and  that  was  in  opposition  to  the  Dissenters.  He  may  be 
very  fit  for  this  place,  but  it  remains  to  be  proved,  and  I  am 
surprised  he  did  not  make  him  begin  with  a  Lordship  of  the 
Treasury  or  some  such  thing,  and  put  Gladstone,  who  is  a  very 
clever  man,  in  that  post.  Praed  is  First  Secretary  to  the 
Board  of  Control,  and  will  do  the  business. 

I  very  much  incline  to  believe  that,  although  Peel  says 
he  is  satisfied  with  the  returns,  he  does  not  expect  the  thing 
will  last,  and  that  upon  his  conviction  he  is  determined  to 
secure  a  retreat  with  such  a  force  as  shall  make  him  formi- 
dable hereafter.  Such  as  the  appointments  are  at  home,  so 
are  they  abroad  :  Londonderry  to  St.  Petersburg,  Stuart  to 
Vienna,  and  in  all  probability  Strangford  to  Constantinople — 
the  three  men  who  are  considered  the  great  upholders  of  the 
Anti-Liberal  system.  (Stuart  told  everybody  he  had  the  offer, 
but  it  was  not  true.) 

The  Duke  of  Leuchtenberg  arrived  last  night.  The  picture 
of  the  young  Queen  of  Portugal  (which  is  probably  flattered) 
does  not  make  her  very  tempting. 

January  15th. — The  day  before  yesterday  I  fell  in  with 
Hobhouse,  and  we  walked  together  for  some  time.  He  said 
he  could  not  understand  what  the  Government  people  meant 
by  claiming  a  majority,  as  he  heard  they  did ;  that  on  the 
Borough  returns  the  Opposition  had  a  majority  of  100  more 
or  less,  but  that  the  difference  could  only  be  accounted  for  by 
one  party  including  all  those  who  call  themselves  Whigs,  and 
who  supported  the  late  Government,  and  by  the  other  party 
counting  those  who,  though  not  supporters,  would  be  disposed 
to  give  them  a  trial.  He  wondered  at  and  blamed  the  consti- 
tution of  the  Government,  ridiculed  the  idea  of  Stanley  suc- 
ceeding Peel,  acknowledged  that  he  saw  no  possibility  of  any 
other  Government  being  formed  on  the  dissolution  of  this,  and 
had  no  conception  what  would  happen — that  another  dissolu- 
tion would  be  indispensable.  I  said  that  I  did  not  see  any 
more  than  he  did  what  they  were  to  do  when  they  had  got 
Peel  out ;  that  their  junction  with  the  Radicals  must  end  there, 
unless  (which  I  could  not  believe)  they  meant  to  come  into 
office  on  the  principle  of  supporting  and  carrying  all  tho 

to  public  life — Sydney  Herbert,  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  Mr.  Gladstone,  Lord 
Cardwell,  and  others.] 

37 


338  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVI. 

measures  they  had  opposed  last  year.  He  said :  "  I  for  one 
will  go  no  further  than  I  did  then ;  no,  that  is  out  of  the 
question."  He  said  the  restoration  of  Melbourne's  Govern- 
ment was  impossible  after  what  had  passed ;  they  could  not 
look  the  King  in  the  face  again,  nor  he  them,  after  such  a  clear 
intimation  on  his  part  that  he  disliked  them,  and  dreaded  their 
principles.  Soon  after,  however,  he  said  that  any  other  Gov- 
ernment must  be  formed  on  §.  more  popular  principle,  and 
especially  must  make  the  arrangement  of  the  House  of  Lords 
a  condition,  for  it  was  impossible  to  go  on  as  things  were, 
between  the  two  Houses ;  that  it  might  have  been  discovered 
when  the  Reform  Bill  was  proposed  that  this  would  be  the 
inevitable  consequence  of  passing  that  measure,  but  that  all 
this  he  did  not  expect  to  be  accomplished  without  a  violent 
collision,  which  would  very  likely  lead  to  a  republic ;  that  he 
should  be  sorry  for  the  disturbance,  but  was  prepared  for  it, 
and  if  a  sacrifice  was  to  be  made,  he  could  not  hesitate  in 
choosing  the  object  of  it. 

Yesterday  morning  I  met  Duncannon,  and  talked  it  all 
over.  I  asked  him  if  he  saw  any  chance  of  forming  a  Govern- 
ment, and  if  he  figured  to  himself  what  the  King  would  do. 
"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  he  will  send  for  Stanley."  "  What  next  ?  " 
"  He  may  send  for  Lord  Gre}'."  "  Will  Lord  Grey  propose 
such  measures  as  you  think  indispensable  ?  "  "  If  he  will  not 
return,  or  won't  go  the  length,  he  may  send  for  Melbourne 
again;  but  it  is  clear  he — the  King — must  be  prepared  for  a 
more  Radical  Government."  I  said,  "  I  don't  think  he  will 
ever  consent  to  take  such  a  one,  or  to  agree  to  the  measures 
they  will  propose  to  him."  "  Oh,  but  he  must,  he  can't  help 
himself."  "  Well,  but  my  belief  is  that,  happen  what  may, 
he  will  not."  "Why,  you  don't  think  he  will  abdicate?" 
"  Yes,  I  do,  rather  than  agree  to  certain  things."  "  Well,  but 
then  he  must  abdicate."  Such  is  the  language  of  the  leaders 
of  the  other  party,  and  so  calmly  do  they  contemplate  the 
possibility  of  such  a  consummation.  The  point  on  which  all 
this  turns  is  evidently  the  destruction  of  the  House  of  Lords. 
The  Whigs  find  it  necessary  to  finish  the  work  they  began, 
and  to  destroy  the  last  bulwark  of  Conservative  power. 
Stanley's  speech  at  his  election,  which  was  very  able  and 
eloquent,  has  evidently  disappointed  them.  They  had  cher- 
ished a  hope  that  he  would  unite  with  them  at  last,  which 
they  now  find  he  will  not  do.  There  has  been  a  great  debate 
in  their  camp  \vheth3r  they  shall  attack  the  Speaker  or  not,  but 


1835.]  THE   COUNTY  ELECTIONS.  339 

:t  seems  fixed  that  they  shall,  and  probably  they  will  be 
beaten.  I  am  glad  they  do  this. 

Theodore  Hook,  whom  I  met  at  dinner  the  other  day, 
and  who  is  an  dme  damnee  of  the  Speaker's,  said  that  he 
was  ready  to  give  up  the  chair  if  it  was  thought  imprudent 
to  fight  for  it ;  he  also  said  (which  I  don't  believe)  that  the 
Home  Office  had  been  offered  him,  and  that  he  had  declined 
it  because  he  could  not  quit  the  chair  without  a  peerage, 
and  that  he  should  be  of  more  use  in  it  than  in  the  House  of 
Lords. 

Theodore  Hook  improvised  in  a  wonderful  way  that 
evening;  he  sang  a  song,  the  burden  of  which  was  "Good- 
night," inimitably  good,  and  which  might  have  been  written 
down.  I  heard  two  good  things  at  dinner  yesterday,  one  of 
Spankie's.  In  his  canvass  he  met  with  a  refusal  from  some 
tradesman,  who  told  him  he  should  vote  for  Buncombe  and 
Wakley.  Spankie  said  :  "  Well,  my  friend,  I  am  sorry  you 
won't  vote  for  me,  and  I  can  only  say  that  I  hope  you  may 
have  Tom  Duncombe  for  your  customer  and  Wakley  for  your 
tenant."  l  The  other  is  attributed  to  Alvanley.  Some  re- 
former was  clamoring  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Bishops  from 
the  House  of  Lords,  but  said  he  would  not  have  them  all  go ; 
he  would  leave  two :  "  To  keep  up  the  breed,  I  suppose,"  said 
the  other. 

January  \lth. — The  Middlesex  election  terminated  in  the 
return  of  Hume  by  about  400  votes ;  Wood  got  a  majority 
of  about  250  at  first,  but  could  not  sustain  it.  It  would  have 
been  a  capital  thing  to  turn  out  Hume,  but  I  never  expect- 
ed it. 

January  20th. — Sir  George  Murray  is  beaten  at  Perth  ; 
James  Wortley  at  Forfar — blows  to  the  Government.  On 
the  other  hand,  Palmerston  is  beaten  in  Hants,  at  which 
everybody  rejoices,  for  he  is  marvelously  unpopular ;  they 
would  have  liked  to  illuminate  the  Foreign  Office.  Lord 
Harrowby  called  on  me  yesterday ;  he  told  me  my  pamphlet 
had  been  attributed  to  Croker  in  some  company  where  he 
had  been.  Jonathan  Peel  told  me  yesterday  morning  that 
Lady  Alice  Kennedy  had  sent  word  to  his  wife  that  the 

1  [The  one  was  celebrated  for  non-payment  of  his  bills,  and  the  other  was 
suspected  of  setting  fire  to  his  house.  Wakley'*  house  was  burned,  and  he 
brought  an  action  against  the  Insurance  Office,  which  declined  to  pay  his  policy. 
I  forget  what  was  the  result  of  the  trial,  but  that  of  the  evidence  was  a  convic- 
tion of  his  own  instrumentality.] 


340  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXVI 

Queen  is  with  child ;  if  it  be  true,  and  a  queer  thing  if  it  is, 
it  will  hardly  come  to  any  thing-  at  her  age,  and  with  her 
health ;  but  what  a  difference  it  would  make  ! 

January  23d, — Within  the  last  few  days  the  county 
elections  have  given  a  considerable  turn  to  the  state  of  affairs. 
The  Conservatives  have  been  everywhere  triumphant.  Nor- 
folk, Derbyshire,  Hants,  Lancashire — two  Whigs  turned  out 
and  two  Conservatives  returned  ;  Ingilby  in  Lincolnshire ;  one 
in  Surrey  ;  one  in  Kent ;  and,  if  these  affairs  had  not  been  in- 
famously managed,  they  would  have  returned  two  in  Surrey, 
two  in  Kent,  and  (if  they  had  put  up  a  better  man)  one  in 
the  other  division  of  Norfork.  The  great  and  most  important 
victory,  however,  is  Francis  Egerton  in  Lancashire,  who  is 
nearly  1,000  above  his  opponents,  and  has  been  received  with 
astonishing  enthusiasm,  and  was  the  popular  candidate,  even 
at  Manchester  and  with  the  mob.  These  elections  have 
damped  the  spirits  of  the  Radicals,  and  proportionally  raised 
those  of  the  Government.  The  Morning  Chronicle  was  yes- 
terday quite  silent  on  the  subject,  and  at  Holland  House, 
where  I  dined,  they  were  evidently  in  no  small  disgust.  I 
told  Lord  Holland  that  I  considered  the  Lancashire  election 
as  the  most  important  event  that  had  occurred,  and  one  calcu- 
lated to  have  a  great  moral  effect  in  favor  of  the  Government, 
which  he  owned  was  true,  and  they  did  not  deny  that  the 
Government  had  cause  for  elation. 

In  the  morning  we  had  a  meeting  at  the  Council  Office,  to 
consider  of  the  removal  of  assizes,  when  Lyndhurst  in  his  off- 
hand way  said  to  me,  "  Well,  I  think  we  are  safe  now  ;  I  have 
no  fears.'"  "  Haven't  you  ?  "  I  said  ;  "  but  I  have."  "  Oh,  no  ; 
we  are  on  a  rock — adamant."  I  don't  think  they  are  yet  in  a 
condition  to  begin  triumphing,  but  I  certainly  see  daylight, 
which  I  did  not  before.  Nobody  can  possibly  deny  that 
there  is  a  great  reaction  in  the  country  ;  and  though  the 
weight  of  the  towns,  and  the  power  of  the  ten-pounders 
thrown  into  the  other  scale,  make  it  preponderate,  there  is" 
a  strong  counteracting  force  which  will  enable  the  better 
cause  to  maintain  a  respectable  fight.  I  expect  that  Francis 
Egerton's  election  will  produce  indirectly  very  important  con- 
sequences, and  will  be  the  means  of  proving  to  moderate, 
doubting,  timorous  politicians  that  they  need  not  shrink 
from  avowing  whatever  Conservative  sentiments  they  really 
do  entertain.  Much  remains  to  be  done,  many  difficulties  tc 
be  surmounted,  before  any  thing  like  security  can  be  felt,  but 


1835.]  CHURCH  REFORM   BILL.  341 

undoubtedly  the  political  horizon  looks  much  brighter  than 
it  did. 

January  25th. — A  ridiculous  thing  happened  the  other 
day.  The  Speaker  came  to  the  Council  Office  in  a  great  stew 
about  the  attacks  on  him,  and  wanted  to  look  at  the  register 
of  the  names  of  those  who  had  attended  at  the  different 
Councils.  Though  I  think  he  is  a  pauvre  sire,  he  has  a  very 
tolerable  case  here,  and  I  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Times  in 
his  defense,  and  signed  it  "Onslow,"  happening  to  think 
of  Speaker  Onslow.  The  next  day  appeared  a  letter  from 
Lord  Onslow^  declaring  that  he  was  not  the  author  of  a  letter 
which  had  appeared  in  his  name.  The  Times  published  it, 
adding  they  thought  he  could  hardly  be  serious.  Munster 
told  me  the  day  before  yesterday  that  he  was  told  of  the 
Queen's  being  with  child  on  the  day  of  the  Lord  Mayor's 
dinner;  that  she  is  now  between  two  and  three  months  gone. 
Of  course  there  will  be  plenty  of  scandal.  Alvanley  proposes 
that  the  psalm  "  Lord,  how  wonderful  are  thy  works  "  should 
be  sung.  It  so  happens,  however,  that  Howe  has  not  been 
with  the  Court  for  a  considerable  time. 

January  27th. — There  is  a  Committee  sitting  at  my  office 
to  arrange  the  Church  Bill — Rosslyn  Wharncliffe,  Ellen  - 
borough,  and  Herries.  It  is  generally  believed  they  mean  to 
bring  forward  some  very  extensive  measures.  Allen  says, 
"The  honest  Whigs  cannot  oppose  it  with  honor,  nor  the 
Tories  support  it  without  infamy,"  that  all  the  honest  Whigs 
would  support  it,  the  honest  Tories  oppose  it,  the  dishonest 
Tories  would  support,  and  the  dishonest  Whigs  oppose  it.  He 
told  me  an  anecdote  at  the  same  time  which  shows  what  the 
supineness  and  sense  of  security  of  the  Church  were  twenty 
years  ago.  An  architect  built  a  chapel  on  Lord  Holland's 
land,  near  Holland  House,  and  wished  it  to  be  appropriated 
to  the  service  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  served  by  a 
curate.  The  rector  objected  and  refused  his  consent.  There 
was  no  remedy  against  him,  and  all  that  could  be  done  was  to 
make  it  a  Methodist  meeting-house,  or  a  Roman  Catholic 
chapel,  either  of  which,  by  taking  out  a  license,  the  builder 
could  do.  However,  he  got  Lord  Holland  to  speak  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  (Sutton),  to  tell  him  the  difficulty, 
and  request  his  interference  with  the  rector  to  suffer  this 
chapel  to  be  opened  to  an  Orlhodox  congregation.  After 
some  delay  the  Archbishop  told  Holland  that  he  had  better 
advise  his  friend  to  take  out  a  license,  and  make  it  a  Catholic 


342  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVI. 

or  Dissenting  chapel,  as  he  thought  best.  The  builder  could 
not  afford  to  lose  the  capital  he  had  expended,  and  acted 
upon  the  advice  of  the  Primate.  The  chapel  is  a  meeting- 
house to  this  day.  I  shall  be  very  glad  if  this  reform  of  the 
Church  is  well  done  and  gives  satisfaction,  and  I  do  not  know 
that  any  of  the  present  Ministers  are  pledged  against  a 
measure  which  improves  the  discipline  without  diminishing 
the  revenues  of  the  Church,  but  certainly  reforms,  and  espe- 
cially ecclesiastical  reforms,  do  come  with  a  bad  grace  from 
them.  It  is  ludicrous  to  see  the  Standard  writing  Church 
reform  articles;  and  the  other  day  I  looked  back  at  Knatch- 
bull's  speech  at  the  Kentish  meeting,  a  week  after  the  dis- 
solution of  the  late  Government,  in  which  he  expressed  an 
earnest  hope  that  he  might  leave  this  country  "  without  any 
change  in  Church  or  State"  He  has  been  Anti-everything 
during  his  whole  life,  and  now  he  is  come  into  office  to  carry 
into  effect  "safe  and  necessary  reforms,"  which  he  never 
could  perceive  the  slightest  occasion  for  while  he  was  out. 
All  these  things  are  disgusting  ;  they  disgust  one  with 
political  life,  they  lower  the  characters  of  public  men.  One 
strains  one's  eyes  in  vain  to  catch  a  sight  of  sincerity, 
straightforwardness,  disinterestedness,  consistency  ;  each 
party  we  have  constantly  acting  with  a  view  to  its  own 
interests  as  a  party,  and  always  disregarding  consequences 
with  miserable  shortsightedness. 

February  2d. — The  elections  are  over,  and  still  each  side 
claims  a  majority.  It  will  turn  out  probably  that  the  Govern- 
ment have  about  270  thick-and-thin  men.  Since  the  Lan- 
cashire election  the  Whigs  have  certainly  not  been  so  elated, 
though  they  still  expect  to  succeed.  They  begin  with  the 
Speakership,  and  put  up  Abercromby,  who  is  probably  the 
best  candidate  they  could  select ;  he  is  a  dull,  grave  man,  sen- 
sible and  hard-headed,  I  fancy,  but  it  has  always  been  matter 
of  astonishment  to  me  that  they  should  make  so  much  of  him 
as  they  do.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  is  constantly  regretting 
that  he  did  not  abstain  from  taking  office,  as  he  wished  to  do, 
and  I  hear  that  Peel  now  thinks  it  would  have  been  better; 
but  he  thinks  so  because  he  fancies  that  Stanley  would  have 
joined  if  the  Duke  had  not  been  there,  which  is,  after  all,  very 
doubtful.  Stanle}'  has  preserved  the  strictest  neutrality 
through  the  late  contest,  and  been  very  guarded  and  cautious 
in  his  language — so  much  so  that  the  Whigs  think  he  will 
vote  for  Abercromby  against  Manners  Button,  which  I  don't 


1835.]  SHERIFFS'   DINNER.  343 

believe.  The  Church  Reform  is  in  active  preparation  ;  I  know 
nothing  of  its  details. 

Pozzo  di  Borgo  is  coming  here,  and  the  Emperor  sends 
him  partly  to  save  time  and,  Madame  de  Lieven  writes  me 
word,  "to  prove  his  good-will,  by  sending  his  ablest  and  most 
confidential  diplomatist."  Old  Talleyrand  would  very  likely 
have  been  glad  enough  to  come  back  too  (while  the  Duke  is 
in  office),  but  he  is  gone  to  Richecote.  A  great  mystery  is  still 
made  about  the  Queen's  grossesse ;  the  medical  men  believe 
it,  though  they  think  it  no  certainty. 

February  8th. — On  Monday  last  we  had  the  Sheriffs'  din- 
ner at  Lord  Rosslyn's,1  where  I  met  for  the  first  time  all  the 
new  men.  *  Murray  did  not  come,  for  since  his  defeat  in 
Perthshire  he  no  longer  considers  himself  of  the  Cabinet. 
Before  dinner  Peel  told  me  he  had  offered  the  vacant  Lord- 
ship of  the  Treasury  to  Charles  Canning,"  in  a  letter  to  Lady 
Canning,  saying  it  would  give  him  great  pleasure  to  introduce 
her  son  into  public  life,  and  that  he  should  be  glad  to  treat 
him  with  confidence,  and  do  all  that  lay  in  him  to  promote  his 
success.  Lady  Canning  wrote  a  very  gracious  answer,  saying 
that  she  preferred  his  being  in  Parliament  some  time  before 
he  took  office,  but  neither  he  nor  she  was  indisposed  to  sup- 
port him  and  his  Government.  At  this  dinner  the  Duke 
talked  to  me  about  Spain,  and  said  that  the  affair  at  the  Post- 
Office  at  Madrid,  in  which  Canterac  was  killed,  was  the  most 
lamentable  thing  that  had  happened,  and  the  most  discredita- 
ble to  the  Government;  that  if  the  Carlists  did  not  rise  upon 
it  all  over  Spain,  it  was  clear  there  were  none;  thai  it  was  a 
most  extraordinary  war,  in  which  the  Carlists  had  the  supe- 
riority in  the  field,  but  possessed  no  fortified  and  even  no  open 
town ;  and  that,  notwithstanding  all  the  plunder  and  devasta- 
tion incidental  to  such  a  state  of  things,  all  the  farmers  in  the 
disturbed  provinces  regularly  paid  their  rents. 

Sandon  is  to  move  the  address  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
Lord  Carnarvon  refused  to  move  it  in  the  House  of  Lords.  I 
think  the  Church  Reform  Commission,  which  was  gazetted  a 
few  days  ago,  has  done  good,  especially  as  it  is  backed  up  by 
Peel's  refusing  to  fill  up  the  vacant  Prebendary  of  West- 
minster, and  placing  it  at  the  disposal  of  the  Commissioners. 

1  [The  Lord  President's  annual  dinner  to  the  Cabinet,  at  which  the  Sheriffs 
for  tlie  ensuing  year  are  selected,  to  bo  appointed  by  the  King  at  the  next 
Council.] 

8  [Afterward  Viscount  Canning  and  Governor-General  of  India  in  1856.] 


344  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVI, 

I  went  to  Oatlands  on  Wednesday  for  two  nights,  and  met 
the  Duchess,  Countess,  the  Granvflles,  and  Pahlen.  It  was 
agreeable  enough.  Lord  Granville  told  us  a  curious  story  of 
an  atrocity  very  recently  committed  in  France.  The  governor 
of  a  military  academy  had  objected  to  one  of  the  officers,  a 
professor,  bringing  a  woman  who  lived  with  him  into  the 
establishment.  The  man  persisted,  and  he  finally  ordered  her 
to  be  ejected.  Resolving  to  be  revenged,  the  officer  took 
these  means :  he  bribed  a  servant  of  the  governor's,  who  let 
him  into  the  house  at  night;  when  he  got  into  the  bedroom 
of  his  daughter,  ravished  her,  and  then  wounded  her  severely 
with  some  sharp  instrument,  but  not  mortally.  The  girl  is 
still  alive,  but  in  a  state  of  frenzy;  the  case  is  coming  before 
the  French  tribunals.  [This  was  the  famous  case  of  La  Ron- 
ciere,  very  inaccurately  stated  above.  There  is  now  little 
doubt  that  La  Ronciere  was  innocent,  and  that  the  story  was 
got  up  by  the  girl  to  revenge  herself  on  him  for  some  slight.] 

My  brothers  tell  me  that  the  Duke  is  bored  to  death  with 
the  King,  who  thinks  it  necessary  to  be  giving  advice  and 
opinions  upon  different  matters,  always  to  the  last  degree 
ridiculous  and  absurd.  He  is  just  now  mightily  indignant  at 
Lord  Napier's  affair  at  Canton,  and  wants  to  go  to  war  with 
China.  He  writes  in  this  strain  to  the  Duke,  who  is  obliged 
to  write  long  answers,  very  respectfully  telling  him  what  an 
old  fool  he  is.  Another  crochet  of  his  is  to  buy  the  Island 
of  St.  Bartholomew  (which  belongs  to  Denmark,  and  which 
the  Danes  want  to  sell)  for  fear  the  Russians  should  buy  it, 
as  he  is  very  jealous  of  Russia.  The  Duke  told  him  that  it 
would  cost  £70,000  or  £80,000,  for  which  they  must  go  to 
Parliament ;  and  he  did  not  think  any  House  of  Commons  we 
were  likely  to  have  would  vote  such  a  sum  for  such  a  purpose. 
Then  he  does  not  at  all  like  Pozzo  di  Borgo's  coming  here, 
and  wrote  to  say  that  since  he  was  to  come,  it  was  well  that 
he  would  have  the  vigilant  eye  of  the  Duke  to  watch  him,  for 
he  never  could  look  upon  him  in  any  other  light  than  as  the 
servile  tool  of  advancing  the  ambitious  objects  of  an  aggran- 
dizing and  unprincipled  Power,  or  words  to  that  effect.  He 
thinks  his  present  Ministers  do  not  treat  him  well,  inasmuch 
as  they  do  not  tell  him  enough.  The  last,  it  seems,  constant- 
ly fed  him  with  scraps  of  information  which  he  twaddled  over, 
and  probably  talked  nonsense  about ;  but  it  is  difficult  to 
imagine  any  thing  more  irksome  for  a  Government  beset  with 
difficulties  like  this  than  to  have  to  discuss  the  various  details 


1835.]  THE   SPEAKERSIIIP.  345 

of  their  measures  -with  a  silly  bustling  old  fellow,  who  can 
by  no  possibility  comprehend  the  scope  and  bearing  of  any 
thing. 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

The  Speakership — Temporary  Houses  of  Parliament— Church  Reform— Dissenters'  Mar- 
riage Bill — Peel's  False  Position — Burke — Palmerston's  Talents  as  a  Man  of  Business 
and  Unpopularity — Sympathy  of  Continental  Courts  with  the  Tories — Abercromby 
elected  Speaker—Defeat  of  the  Government — Tactics  of  the  Opposition— The  Speaker 
does  not  dine  with  Peel — Meeting  of  Stanley's  Friends — Debate  on  the  Address — Lord 
John  Russell  leads  the  Opposition — The  Stanley  Party — Second  Defeat  of  the  Govern- 
ment— Peel's  Ability — The  Litchflcld  House  Meeting — Debate  on  Lord  Londonderry's 
Appointment — His  Speech  in  the  Lords  and  Resignation — Sir  E.  Sngden  resigns  the 
Great  Seal  of  Ireland — Lady  Canterbury — Brougham  in  the  House  of  Lords — Peel's 
Beadiness  and  Courage — Lord  Canterbury  and  Stratford  Canning  proposed  for  Canada 
— Approaching  Fall  of  the  Peel  Government — Meetings  of  the  Opposition — Further 
Defeat— Sir  Kobert  Peel's  own  View  of  the  State  of  Aftairs— He  resigns. 

February  14?A. — There  has  been  a  wonderful  lull  for  some 
time  past,  and  though  \ve  are  said  to  be,  and  I  believe  we  in 
fact  are,  on  the  eve  of  a  crisis  of  great  importance,  perfect 
tranquillity  prevails  universally  (except,  of  course,  in  Ireland), 
and  men  go  about  their  daily  occupations  without  any  signs 
of  apprehension.  The  state  of  this  country  is  a  curious 
political  paradox ;  however,  speculation  will  soon  be  lost  in 
certainty,  so  it  is  of  no  use  thinking  more  of  the  matter.  The 
newspapers  have  been  filled  usque  ad  nauseam  with  the  de- 
bates about  the  Speakership,  and  both  parties  are  equally 
confident,  but  the  bets  are  in  favor  of  Sutton.  The  argu- 
ment on  his  side  has  been  triumphant,  and  the  Abercrombians 
have  not  urged  the  best  that  they  might.  Tom  Duncombe, 
who  at  first  said  he  would  vote  for  Sutton,  and  now  votes 
the  other  way,  puts  it  on  the  .true  ground,  "  that  it  is  a  good 
factious  vote."  I  have  little  doubt  that  Peel  will  come  down 
in  Parliament  with  a  fair  and  reasonable  case,  but  I  have  no 
hope  that  he  will  propose  or  agree  to  any  thing  satisfactorily 
about  the  Irish  Church;  and  if  any  thing  overturns  his  Gov- 
ernment, it  will  be  that  unhappy  question  of  appropriation. 
From  George  Dawson's  language,  which  I  fell  in  with  the 
other  morning,  I  see  they  are  resolved  to  stand  like  rocks  in 
defending  "  the  Church,"  as  they  call  it.  All  this  week  and 
the  last  I  have  been  at  my  office  the  whole  day  with  our  Judi- 
cial Committee,  which  works  very  well.  We  have  Shadwell, 
Parke,  Bosanquet,  and  Erskine,  continually;  and  Vaughan, 


346  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXVII 

Nicholl,  and  Jenner,  occasionally.  Alava  talked  to  me  about 
the  Duke  of  Wellington,  of  whom  he  said  everybody  was 
afraid,  even  his  nearest  relations,  and  that  he  found  him, 
"  ires-change1  pour  lui." 

February  15th. — Dined  at  Miss  Berry's  and  Lord  John 
Russell  came  after ;  told  me  he  had  320  people  to  vote  with 
him  on  the  Speakership  (of  whom  perhaps  20  will  not  come), 
so  his  party  make  sure  of  it.  Nobody  talks  of  any  thing  else, 
and  what  has  been  written  on  the  subject  in  pamphlets  and 
newspapers  would  fill  volumes.  Though  it  is  become  incon- 
ceivably tiresome,  I  cannot  help  writing  and  talking  about 
it  myself,  so  impossible  is  it  to  avoid  the  contagion.  I  went 
yesterday  to  see  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament ;  *  the  old 
House  of  Lords  (now  House  of  Commons)  is  very  spacious 
and  convenient ;  but  the  present  House  of  Lords  is  a  wretched 
dog-hole.  The  Lords  will  be  very  sulky  in  such  a  place,  and 
in  a  great  hurry  to  get  back  to  their  own  House,  or  to  have 
another.  For  the  first  time  there  is  a  gallery  in  the  House  of 
Commons  reserved  for  reporters,  which  is  quite  inconsistent 
with  their  standing  orders,  and  the  prohibition  which  still  in 
form  exists  against  publishing  the  debates.  It  is  a  sort  of 
public  and  avowed  homage  to  opinion,  and  a  recognition  of 
the  right  of  the  people  to  know  through  the  medium  of  the 
press  all  that  passes  within  those  walls. 

Lord  John  said  to  me:  "Do  you  remember  last  year,  when 
we  were  talking,  I  told  you  I  thought  the  House  of  Lords 
would  throw  out  some  measure  or  other — that  there  would 
be  a  change  of  Government,  a  dissolution ;  and  then  we 
should  have  a  Parliament  returned  with  which  nobody  could 
govern  the  country  ?  You  see  we  have  reached  that  point." 
According  to  their  several  calculations,  both  the  opposite 
parties  continue  to  claim  a  majority,  or  rather  on  the  Tory 
side  an  equality  ;  and  as  these  are  made  by  men  experienced 
in  the  composition  of  the  House,  and  as  almost  everybody  is 
pledged  and  committed  in  some  way  or  other,  it  is  a  perfect 
enigma  to  me  how  one  or  the  other  can  be  so  deceived.  The 
Whigs,  having  discovered  that  Abercromby  must  be  proposed 
"  upon  a  great  principle  "  (which  is  great  as  omne  ignotum  is 
magnificum — for  they  have  never  given  a  hint  of  what  the 

1  [The  old  Houses  of  Parliament  were  burned  clown  on  October  16,  1834, 
during  Mr.  Greville's  absence  from  town  in  the  autumn.  The  Houses  here 
spoken  of  were  the  temporary  buildings  used  during  the  erection  of  the  nev\ 
Houses.] 


1833.]  CORRUPTION   OF  THE   CLERGY.  347 

principle  is),  have  now  found  out  that  the  English  Church 
Reform  which  is  in  agitation  is  a  very  bad  move  on  the  part 
of  the  Government,  as  the  people  do  not  care  about  Church 
Reform  here — do  not  want  any  such  thing.  This  is,  very 
possibly,  in  great  measure  true  ;  for  the  people,  who  are  urged 
and  excited  by  the  Radical  leaders,  will  be  sure  to  grow 
indifferent  about  such  reforms  as  they  can  obtain  by  legiti- 
mate means,  and  with  the  concurrence  of  legitimate  author- 
ity, and  be  invited  to  agitate  for  those  which  may  be  more 
difficult  or  slow  of  accomplishment.  Sydney  Smith  said  last 
night  that  he  hears  from  those  who  know  that  it  will  be  very 
sweeping ;  but  he  thinks  it  will  not  touch  the  great  livings, 
nor  meddle  with  advowsons.  He  concludes  that  at  the  same 
time  the  Dissenters  will  be  relieved  from  Church  rates,  that 
tithes  will  be  extinguished,  and  the  question  of  Dissenters' 
marriages  settled.  This  has  been  an  enormous  scandal,  and 
its  continuance  has  been  owing  to  the  pride,  obstinacy,  and 
avarice  of  the  Church  ;  they  would  not  give  up  the  fees  they 
received  from  this  source,  and  they  were  satisfied  to  celebrate 
these  rites  in  church  while  the  parties  were  from  the  be- 
ginning to  the  end  of  the  service  protesting  against  all  and 
every  part  of  it,  often  making  a  most  indecent  noise  and 
interruption.  All  these  grievous  abuses  must  be  done  away 
with  ;  and  deeply  responsible  are  those  who  never  would  hear 
of  their  being  done  away  with  before.  These  guilty  parties 
are  the  clergy  and  the  Tories,  both  of  whom,  now  that  it  is  al- 
most too  late,  have  consented  to  drop  their  arrogant  preten- 
sions, and  to  submit  to  those  necessary  and  reasonable  reforms 
against  which  they  have  so  bitterly  inveighed,  and  so  reso- 
lutely fought.  We  are  disgusted  and  shocked  at  reading 
Croly's  account  of  the  scandalous  conduct  of  the  Catholic 
clergy  in  Ireland,  with  regard  to  the  emoluments  they  extort 
from  their  miserable  flocks,  and  at  the  systematic  desecration 
of  holy  things  which  they  countenance  and  practise ;  but 
when  the  difference  is  considered  between  their  spiritual  con- 
dition and  their  moral  composition  as  a  class,  the  conduct  of 
the  clergy  here  appears  just  as  revolting.  The  Irish  clergy 
are  generally  sprung  from  the  lowest  class,  and  have  received 
a  bad  education  at  Maynooth  ;  they  depend  for  subsistence 
upon  the  voluntary  liberality  or  devotion  of  their  people,  they 
have  few  motives  or  principles  of  restraint,  and  every  incen- 
tive to  follow  the  shameful  course  which  they  do ;  but  the 
English  clergy  are  generally  respectably  born,  well  educated, 


348  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.          •    [CHAP.  XXVII. 

and  amply  endowed,  and  yet  they  are  content  to  be  the  minis- 
ters of  a  scandalous  system,  which,  if  it  were  not  a  source  of 
profit  to  themselves,  they  would  not  tolerate  for  an  instant. 
Instead  of  compelling1  the  Dissenters  to  be  married  in  church, 
if  they  had  been  really  penetrated  with  any  devotional  feel- 
ings, or  by  any  censiderations  of  delicacy  and  charity,  they 
would  long  ago  have  complained  of  this  necessity  as  a  griev- 
ance, and  besieged  the  Legislature  with  entreaties  to  relieve 
the  Church  from  the  scandal,  and  themselves  from  so  painful 
and  odious  a  duty.  But  it  was  a  badge  of  inferiority  and  de- 
pendence forced  upon  the  Dissenters,  and  a  source  of  profit 
to  themselves ;  and  therefore  they  defended  and  maintained 
it,  and  this  is  what  they  call  defending  the  Church  ;  and 
when  the  Dissenters  themselves  pray  to  be  relieved  from  the 
tax  and  the  humiliation,  and  liberal  men  support  their  prayer, 
a  cry  is  got  up  that  the  Church  is  in  danger.  When  the  Dis 
sentcrs,  having  prayed  in  vain,  grow  louder  and  bolder  in 
their  demands,  and  the  cries  of  the  Churchmen  gradually  sink 
into  a  whine,  which  is  at  last  silenced  in  submission,  the 
Church  really  is  in  danger;  and  then,  when  it  no  longer  can 
be  refused,  it  becomes  perilous  to  grant  the  boon  which  justice 
and  wisdom  have  so  long  required.  So  it  is,  and  has  been 
with  all  obstinate  and  senseless  denials,  followed  by  reluctant 
and  tardy  concessions — with  Catholic  emancipation,  the  Test 
and  Corporation  Acts,  Parliamentary  Reform,  and  with  every 
thing  else ;  and  thus,  one  of  the  great  difficulties  which 
beset  Peel  and  his  Government  is,  that  they  stand  in  an 
utterly  false  position.  As  a  statesman,  it  must  be  mortifying 
to  him  to  reflect  that  all  the  great  measures  which  his  po- 
litical life  has  been  spent  in  opposing  have  been  carried  in 
spite  of  him,  and  that  whatever  danger  may  have  resulted 
from  this  cause  is  in  great  measure  owing  to  the  opposition 
he  was  enabled,  by  his  great  talents  and  his  influence,  or 
rather  the  influence  of  the  party  which  he  led,  to  give  to 
those  measures.  He  contrived  totally  to  fail  in  preventing 
the  success  of  the  measures  themselves,  but  so  to  mar  and 
delay  them  as  to  obviate  the  good  that  might  have  been 
produced  by  timely  and  voluntary  concessions ;  and  now, 
coining  forward  as  he  says,  "  to  resist  the  pressure  from  with- 
out," he  finds  himself  compelled  to  yield  to  that  pressure ; 
.for  what,  after  all,  is  the  language  which  he  now  holds,  what 
are  his  addresses,  his  speeches,  his  promises,  his  Church 
Commission,  but  a  surrender  to  the  spirit  and  the  principle 


1885.]  BURKE'S  APPEAL.  349 

of  Reform,  and  to  the  demands  of  the  people  —the  People,  as 
contradistinguished  from  those  great  interests  on  whose 
support  he  has  depended,  and  whose  wishes  or  prejudices  he 
has  consulted?  For  assuredly,  neither  the  King,  nor  the 
Church,  nor  the  aristocracy,  seriously  and  sincerely  desire 
these  or  any  other  reforms,  and  only  agree  to  them  from 
necessity.  Peel  is,  I  think,  right;  he  has  no  other  alterna- 
tive. Such  is  the  force  and  power  of  public  opinion,  that  no 
Government  can  resist  it ;  and  if  Peel  can  succeed  in  restrain- 
ing and  directing  it,  if  he  can  convert  it  from  a  destructive 
into  a  conservative  element,  he  will  render  such  a  great  ser- 
vice as  will  cancel  all  the  former  mischief  he  has  done  ;  but  he 
enters  with  disadvantage  upon  a  course  which  implies  at  the 
outset  the  surrender  of  much  of  the  governing  principle  of 
his  political  life,  and  in  which  neither  friend  nor  foe  can 
doubt  that  the  conduct  he  adopts,  however  justifiable,  neces- 
sary, indispensable,  is  compulsory  and  unpalatable.  A  man 
who  is  called  to  the  head  of  affairs  must  undoubtedly  act,  not 
according  to  any  impracticable  obstinate  theories  of  his  own, 
but  according  to  the  state  in  which  he  finds  affairs,  no  matter 
how  produced  or  by  whom;  but  it  is  a  very  different  thing  to 
adopt  a  system  reluctantly  and  under  necessity,  because  some- 
body else  by  his  incapacity  or  his  misfortune  has  rendered  it 
indispensable,  and  to  do  so  after  you  yourself  have  brought 
about  this  state  of  things:  and  such  is  the  false  position  of 
Peel  with  all  his  Tory  associates.  This,  however,  is  begging 
the  question  in  dispute  between  the  two  great  antagonistic 
parties.  Peel  would  say  that  the  imprudent  concessions  and 
reckless  changes  of  the  Whigs  have  made  the  difficulty;  the 
Whigs  would  say  that  the  resistance  of  the  Tories  to  all  mod- 
erate and  gradual  reforms  produced  the  sweeping  measure  of 
'31,  and  the  excitement  that  was  partly  its  cause  and  partly 
its  consequence. 

February  Ytth. — Yesterday  I  read  Burke's  appeal  from 
the  new  to  the  old  Whigs,  which  contains  astonishing  coin- 
cidences with  the  present  times.  His  definition  of  the  people 
is  somewhat  tumid  and  obscure,  and  involved  in  a  splendid 
confusion  of  generalities  and  abstruse  doctrine;  but  it  is  a 
wonderful  monument  of  his  genius,  and  exhibits  that  extent 
of  knowledge  and  accuracy  of  insight  into  the  nature  of  par- 
ties and  the  workings  of  political  ambition  which  make  him 
an  authority  for  all  times,  and  show  him  to  be  in  the  political 
what  Shakespeare  was  in  the  moral  world.  But  his  writings, 


350  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVIL 

however  as  objects  of  study  they  may  influence  the  opinions 
or  form  the  judgment  of  young  men,  would  have  no  more 
power  than  a  piece  of  musty  parchment  to  arrest  the  tide  of 
present  violence,  and  superinduce  reflection  and  calmness.  A 
speech  of  Tom  Buncombe's  would  produce  far  greater  effect 
than  the  perusal  of  a  discourse  of  Burke's.  Wisdom  never 
operates  directly  on  masses;  it  may  work  upon  them  through 
secondary  and  by  indirect  means,  but  it  cannot  face  the  noise 
of  actual  contest,  where  passion  and  not  reason  is  always  up- 
permost. Nobody  but  Burke  could  have  described  so  well 
the  Dukes  of  Devonshire  and  Bedford  of  the  present  day, 
who  appear  to  have  lost  their  senses,  and  to  be  ready  to  peril 
all  their  great  possessions  to  gratify  the  passions  of  the  mo- 
ment. He  says :  "  But  riches  do  not  in  all  cases  secure  even 
an  inert  and  passive  resistance;  there  are  always  in  that  de- 
scription men  whose  fortunes,  when  their  minds  are  once  viti- 
ated by  passion  or  evil  principle,  are  by  no  means  a  security 
from  their  actually  taking  their  part  against  the  public  tran- 
quillity. We  see  to  what  low  and  despicable  passion  of  all 
kinds  many  men  in  that  class  are  ready  to  sacrifice  the  patri- 
monial estates  which  might  be  perpetuated  in  their  families 
with  splendor,  and  with  the  fame  of  hereditary  benefactors 
to  mankind,  from  generation  to  generation.  Do  we  not  see 
how  lightly  people  treat  their  fortunes  when  they  are  under 
the  passion  of  gaming  ?  The  game  of  resentment  or  am- 
bition will  be  played  by  many  of  the  great  and  rich  as  des- 
perately and  with  as  much  blindness  to  the  consequences  as 
any  other  game.  Passion  blinds  them  to  the  consequences 
as  far  as  they  concern  themselves,  and  as  to  the  consequences 
with  regard  to  others,  they  are  no  part  of  their  consider- 
ation." 

The  other  night  I  met  some  clerks  in  the  Foreign  Office 
to  whom  the  very  name  of  Palmerston  is  hateful,  but  I  was 
surprised  to  hear  them  (Mellish  particularly,  who  can  judge 
both  from  capacity  and  opportunity),  give  ample  testimony 
to  his  abilities.  They  said  that  he  wrote  admirably,  and 
could  express  himself  perfectly  in  French,  very  sufficiently  in 
Italian,  and  understood  German;  that  his  diligence  and  at- 
tention were  unwearied — he  read  every  thing  and  wrote  an 
immense  quantity;  that  the  foreign  Ministers,  who  detest  him, 
did  him  justice  as  an  excellent  man  of  business.  His  great 
fault  is  want  of  punctuality,  and  never  caring  for  an  en- 
gagement if  it  did  not  suit  him,  keeping  everybody  waiting 


1835.]  BULOW   AND   THE  EMPEROR  OF  RUSSIA.  35! 

for  hours  on  his  pleasure  or  caprice.  This  testimony  is  ba- 
yond  suspicion,  and  it  is  confirmed  by  the  opinions  of  his 
colleagues;  but  it  is  certain  that  he  cut  a  very  poor  figure  in 
Parliament  all  the  time  he  was  in  office  before. 

At  the  Travellers'  yesterday  I  fell  in  with  Billow,  who  is 
just  come  back  from  Berlin  to  resume  his  mission.  He  told 
me  that  he  was  on  such  terms  with  Palmerston  that  it  was 
impossible  for  him  to  stay  here,  and  that  for  some  time  past 
he  had  given  up  communicating  with  him  except  upon  the 
most  indispensable  matters  and  in  the  most  formal  way. 
He  then  gave  me  an  account  of  the  reception  of  the  news  of 
the  change  of  our  Government  at  Berlin,  where  the  Emperor 
of  Russia  happened  to  be  at  the  time.  The  Empress  had 
come  there  on  a  visit  to  her  father,  and  the  Emperor  (who 
is  supposed  to  have  preserved  his  conjugal  fidelity  immacu- 
late) had  rushed  from  Moscow  without  any  notice  to  see  her, 
and  was  still  there  when  news  of  this  great  event  arrived. 
There  is  something  very  characteristic  in  the  first  impression 
which  the  intelligence  produced,  at  once  manifesting  the 
secret  wishes  of  the  party  and  their  ignorance  and  apparent 
incapacity  of  comprehending  the  nature  of  our  Constitution, 
and  the  limited  extent  of  the  power  of  the  King  of  Eng- 
land. The  Emperor  immediately  conceived  that  the  whole 
system  of  the  late  Government  would  be  reversed  at  home 
and  abroad,  that  Leopold  would  be  driven  from  Belgium, 
the  Dutch  dominion  restored,  and  the  Quadruple  Alliance 
dissolved.  Billow,  who  has  been  in  England  long  enough 
to  know  better  the  real  state  of  things,  endeavored  to 
undeceive  him,  and  succeeded,  though  not  without  great 
difficulty  ;  but  when  he  proceeded  to  explain  to  him  that  the 
new  Government  would  very  likely  not  be  able  to  keep  their 
places,  and  that  at  any  rate  they  would  be  compelled  to 
conduct  the  Government  upon  the  principle  of  Reform  which 
the  late  Government  had  established,  the  Emperor  could  not 
by  any  moans  comprehend  it,  nor  why  or  how  there  could  be 
any  difficulty  in  keeping  their  places  if  the  King  was  resolved 
to  support  them,  and  had  appointed  them  at  his  own 
pleasure.  It  would  seem  as  if  they  had  never  read  the  last 
two  or  three  years  of  our  history,  or,  having  read  it,  as  if  the 
habits  of  unbounded  power  in  which  they  are  born,  educated, 
and  expect  to  die,  had  rendered  their  understandings  utterly 
impervious  to  the  apparent  paradox  of  a  crowned  head 
destitute  of  power  to  chooso  his  own  Ministers.  The  Duke 


352  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVII. 

of  Cumberland,  who  was  likewise  there,  began  by  talking 
the  same  nonsense,  and  was  full  of  the  destruction  of  the 
Reform  Bill ;  but  Billy  Holmes,  who,  whatever  else  he  may 
be,  is  a  very  sharp  fellow,  succeeded  in  muzzling  him.  This 
account  which  Billow  gave  me  is,  however,  more  than 
amusing  ;  it  is  instructive,  because  it  shows  which  way  the 
real  wishes  of  the  absolute  sovereigns  point,  and  makes  it 
highly  probable  that  they  look  upon  the  present  settlement 
of  Europe  as  one  only  ad  interim^  and  to  be  remodeled 
whenever  an  opportunity  shall  present  itself.  They  are 
satisfied  at  present  with  damming  and  diking  out  the  waters 
of  Liberalism,  but  they  hope  to  drain  the  lands  in  which 
they  are  collected,  and  to  place  themselves  forever  out  of 
the  danger  of  an  inundation.  The  war  of  opinions  is  in  fact 
declared  ;  it  may  languish,  there  may  be  truces,  but  there 
will  be  no  peace  in  our  time. 

February  19th. — The  important  day  is  arrived,  and  it 
dawns  in  sunshine  and  south  wind.  In  a  few  hours  the 
question  of  the  Speakership  will  be  decided,  and  there  will 
at  least  be  the  gain  (wherever  the  loss  may  fall)  of  getting 
rid  of  a  subject  which  has  become  intolerably  tiresome. 
For  the  last  three  weeks  every  newspaper  has  been  literally 
filled  with  the  controversy,  every  club  engaged  in  betting  on 
the  event ;  in  every  room,  at  the  corner  of  every  street, 
nobody  talked  of  any  thing  else.  It  was  the  first  inquiry  of 
every  man  you  met,  "  Well,  what  do  you  hear  to-day  ?  they 
say  Sutton  will  win  by  30."  The  next  man  (a  Whig)  would 
say,  "It  is  safe;  Abercromby  will  have  317  votes  sure" — 
each  party  unboundedly  confident,  and  both  securing  a 
retreat  by  declaring  that  defeat  will  not  signify.  Half  the 
Opposition  think  it  a  false  move  to  try  it,  and  the  more 
sober  of  the  Government  are  conscious  that  a  defeat  will  bo 
very  injurious. 

We  had  a  Council  yesterday,  and  a  levee  more  than 
usually  brilliant ;  all  the  new  Ministers  and  all  the  old,  the 
whole  Corps  Diplomatique,  with  a  host  of  others,  mixed  up 
in  the  first  entrbe  room,  and  all  very  civil  and  good-humored. 
The  King  received  the  ex-Ministers  very  graciously,  and 
talked  to  them  all,  at  least  to  all  I  saw  pass  by.  Brougham 
alone  was  absent,  and  Lord  Spencer,  who  was  hardly  to  be 
considered  as  one  of  them,  and  is  not  in  town,  though, 
by-the-by,  I  think  I  am  wrong  in  this,  because  there  were 
others  whom  I  did  not  see — Duncannon,  Spring  Rice,  and 
Hobhouse. 


1835.]  VNrIIIG   SPEAKER  ELECTED.  353 

February  20th. — The  great  battle  is  over,  and  the  Gov- 
ernment defeated,  316  to  306.  Such  a  division  never  was 
known  before  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  the  accuracy 
of  the  calculations  is  really  surprising.  Mulgrave  told  me 
three  days  ago  they  had  317  people,  which  with  the  Teller 
makes  the  exact  number.  Holmes  went  over  the  other  list, 
and  made  it  307 — also  correct.  In  the  House  so  justly  had 
they  reckoned,  that  when  the  numbers  first  counted  (306) 
were  told  to  Duncannon  in  the  lobby  he  said,  "Then  we 
shall  win  by  10."  Burdett  and  Cobbett  went  away,  which, 
with  Tellers,  makes  a  total  of  626  members  in  the  House. 
All  the  Irish  members  voted  but  4,  all  the  Scotch  but  3,  all 
the  English  but  25.  The  Irish  and  Scotch,  in  fact,  made  the 
majority. 

The  elation  on  one  side  and  the  depression  on  the  other 
were  naturally  considerable,  and  there  was  not  time  last 
night  to  adjust  scattered  thoughts.  Much  money  was  won 
and  lost ;  everybody  betted.  I  won  £55,  for  on  the  whole 
I  thought  (though  quite  a  toss-up)  that  the  chances  were 
rather  in  favor  of  Abercromby.  I  had  a  better  opinion  of 
the  cleverness  of  the  managers  on  his  side,  and  their  amazing 
confidence  staggered  me,  so  that  after  at  first  believing 
Sutton  to  be  sure,  I  finished  by  leaning  the  other  way.  The 
debate  seems  to  have  been  dull — Sutton  was  dull ;  Peel  was 
dull  ;  Stanley  clever,  strong  against  the  Opposition,  but 
thought  to  have  been  indiscreet.  A  Tory  told  me  it  was  a 
second  edition  of  the  thimblerig  speech,  which,  if  so,  will  not 
do  him  good.  He  carried  apparently  very  few  people  with 
him,  but  made  one  convert — Angerstein — who  changed  his 
vote  because  Stanley  made  out  that  Abercromby  was  for  the 
Ballot.  This  seems  an  excellent  reason  why  he  should  be 
opposed  as  a  Minister  or  a-  candidate,  but  none  why  he 
should  not  sit  in  the  chair  of  the  House.  Lord  John  Russell 
is  said  to  have  spoken  remarkably  well,  which  is  important  to 
them  as  a  party,  being  his  first  appearance  as  their  leader. 
Peel  and  the  Duke  dined  at  Lord  Salisbury's,  and  all  the 
Tories  were  invited  there  in  the  evening,  with  the  intention 
probably  of  celebrating  their  anticipated  victory  ;  and,  if  so, 
their  merry  meeting  must  have  been  changed  to  dismal 
alarms,  for  there  is  no  denying  or  concealing  that  it  is  a 
very  serious  disaster.  The  moral  effect  of  beginning  with  a% 
defeat  is  bad  ;  it  discourages  the  wavering  and  timid,  who 
might  have  felt  half  disposed  to  support  the  Government 


354  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVII. 

and  the  Constitution.  The  trial  of  strength  leads  to  very 
uncomfortable  reflections,  for  every  man  of  these  317  is 
prepared  to  go  all  lengths  ;  and  though  there  are  probably 
none  among  the  majority  who  will  support  Government, 
there  are  some  among  the  minority  who  will  oppose  them — 
Dudley  Stuart,  Angerstein,  and  Burdett,  who  went  away. 

The  majority  of  the  world  naturally  look  at  this  event 
with  the  eye  of  party,  and  as  a  triumph  one  way  and  a 
mortification  the  other  ;  but  I,  who  have  no  party  prejudices 
and  predilections,  and  care  nothing  who  is  in  the  chair,  and 
not  much  who  is  in  office,  provided  "  the  thing,"  as  Cobbett 
calls  it,  is  kept  going,  look  at  this  division  with  sorrow  and 
alarm,  as  affording  undoubted  evidence  that  no  prospect 
appears  of  the  possibility  of  this  or  any  other  Government 
being  able  to  accomplish  the  purposes  for  which  a  Govern- 
ment is  intended.  We  seem  to  be  arrived  at  what  is  vulgarly 
termed  a  dead-lock.  Nothing  can  be  more  clear  than  that 
the  present  Ministers  are  in  a  minority,  and  that  all  the 
other  parties  in  the  House  united  can  beat  them  when  they 
will.  It  is  equally  clear  that  they  can  beat  any  section  of 
their  opponents  whenever  these  are  disunited.  The  political 
attraction  which  binds  together  the  mass  cannot  last  long, 
and  there  are  too  many  elements  of  repulsion  in  esse  or  in 
posse  not  to  insure  the  speedy  disjunction  of  the  several 
atoms ;  but  in  the  mean  time,  if  they  can  be  held  together, 
what  is  to  happen  ?  Peel  will  take  a  beating  or  two,  but  he 
may  be  so  beaten  as  to  be  compelled  to  resign  or  again  dis- 
solve. Suppose  he  dissolves.  The  Tories  think  the  reaction 
is  on  the  increase,  and  that  the  Conservative  interest  would 
gain  largely  by  another  dissolution ;  still  there  is  scarcely  a 
hope  of  their  gaining  enough  to  enable  Peel  to  carry  on  the 
Government  with  such  constant  and  dependible  majorities  as 
can  alone  render  it  efficacious  and  secure.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  Peel  resigns,  the  Opposition,  should  they  return  to  power, 
must  dissolve  ;  for  what  can  they  do  against  300  Tories  ?  and 
what  Ministry  can  by  possibility  be  formed  that  can  have  a 
certain  majority  of  its  own  out  of  the  heterogeneous  mixture 
of  Whigs,  Radicals,  Repealers,  and  men  of  every  shade  and 
gradation  of  opinion  ?  Their  situation,  notwithstanding  their 
victory,  seems  worse  than  that  of  their  antagonists  with  refer- 
ence to  their  power  as  a  party ;  and  if  they  do  storm  Down- 
ing Street  and  St  James's,  and  go  again  to  the  country,  as  far 
as  appearances  go,  what  chance  have  they  of  materially  bet 


1835.]  CONFUSION   OF  PARTIES.  355 

tering  their  condition,  and  getting  another  House  of  Commons 
more  manageable  and  better  adapted  to  their  purpose  than 
this?  This  victory,  therefore,  will  not  enable  the  old  Govern- 
ment to  triumph  over  the  new,  or  materially  affect  the  posi- 
tions of  the  two  parties,  and,  as  somebody  said  last  night,  they 
will  be  very  much  puzzled  what  to  do  with  their  majority  now 
they  have  got  it. 

The  first  impression  of  great  events  is  generally  one  of 
alarm,  which  upon  this  occasion  subsequent  reflection  has  di- 
minished as  far  as  relates  to  the  immediate  peril  of  the  present 
Government.  Speculation  already  began  last  night  as  to  the 
Address,  on  which  some  pretend  no  amendment  will  be  moved, 
others  that  one  will,  which  as  certainly  will  be  carried.  No 
question  can,  however,  be  more  embarrassing  to  the  Whig 
leaders,  for  they  would  be  disposed  in  prudence  to  abstain 
from  any  very  violent  measure,  but  will  find  great  difficulty  in 
dealing  with  their  associates.  If  they  resolve  upon  pushing 
their  victory  and  amending  the  Address,  they  run  the  risk  of 
exciting  terror  by  their  violence ;  if  they  avoid  this,  probably 
some  of  the  Radicals  will  do  it,  and  then  they  must  support 
Government  on  the  Address  against  a  Radical  section  of  the 
House,  or  join  with  the  Radicals  in  one  of  two  ways,  either 
by  supporting  their  amendment  or  persuading  them  to  with- 
draw it;  in  either  case  drawing  closer  the  bonds  of  that  con- 
nection which  they  are  ashamed  and  afraid  to  avow,  and 
which  will,  I  strongly  incline  to  believe,  be  in  the  end  fatal  to 
the  Whig  party.  The  only  thing  that  can  truly  be  predicted 
is,  that  all  is  confusion,  uncertainty,  embarrassment,  a  state 
of  things  full  of  difficulty  and  peril,  but  not  totally  without 
hope. 

February  21st. — The  Government  were  grievously  annoyed 
at  the  event  of  Thursday,  and  the  Duke  rejected  all  the  com- 
monplaces of  consolation,  "  that  it  would  turn  out  a  good 
thing."  At  Lord  Salisbury's  dinner  (to  which  Peel  did  not  go) 
they  were  all  very  dejected,  and  the  Duke  said  at  once  it  was 
as  bad  as  could  be ;  and  the  thing  appeared  the  worse  be- 
cause they  had  been  led  to  feel  so  very  secure.  He  desired 
his  private  secretary  to  have  every  thing  ready  to  quit  the 
Foreign  Office  at  a  moment's  notice.  However,  at  dinner 
yesterday  at  Peel's  (a  great  dinner  to  all  the  Embassadors 
and  twenty-six  people)  he  said  to  me, "  It  is  very  bad,  but  I 
consider  the  country  on  its  legs  again"  " Do  you ? "  I  said, 


35G  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVJI 

"I  am  glad  you  think  so."     "Oh,  yes,  I  think  that,  however 
this  may  end ;  I  think  the  country  is  on  its  legs  again." 

The  Whigs  are  resolved  to  push  their  victory  with  all  their 
energies,  and  they  appear  to  have  no  doubt  of  ousting  the 
Government,  and  as  they  are  determined  to  proceed  by  any 
and  every  means  in  their  career,  and  the  others  are  equally 
resolved  to  fight  the  battle  while  any  means  of  resistance  re- 
main, the  strife  must  be  deadly,  and  such  as  to  extinguish  any 
hope  of  a  coalition  between  moderate  men  of  both  sides  for 
the  simple  reason  that  moderation  has  ascended  to  Heaven, 
and  such  men  will  no  longer  be  found. 

February  23d. — The  Opposition  mean  to  move  an  amend- 
ment to  the  Address,  which  they  expect  to  carry  by  a  larger 
majority  than  the  last.  Their  tactics  are  completely  arranged, 
and  their  understanding  with  O'Connell  and  all  the  Radicals 
so  good  that  they  think  there  is  no  danger  of  any  indiscreet 
ebullition  in  any  quarter.  Discarding  every  prospective  con- 
sideration, and  prepared  to  encounter  all  consequences,  they 
concentrate  all  their  energies  upon  the  single  object  of  turning 
out  the  Government,  in  which  they  have  no  doubt  of  succeed- 
ing. It  is  the  first  time  (as  far  as  I  know)  that  any  great 
party  ever  proceeded  upon,  and  avowed,  such  a  principle  as 
that  which  binds  these  people  together  and  puts  them  in 
action  ;  namely,  to  destroy  the  King's  Ministry,  without  any 
reference  to  the  measures  that  Ministry  may  propose,  and 
without  waiting  to  see  how  they  may  intend  to  carry  on  the 
Government.  Not  only  do  they  throw  out  of  their  considera- 
tion the  conduct  of  the  Administration,  but  they  are  resolved 
to  accomplish  its  destruction,  without  being  prepared  to  sub- 
stitute any  stronger  Government  in  its  room,  and  with  a  per- 
fect knowledge  that  its  dissolution  must  necessarily  produce 
a  state  of  extraordinary  embarrassment,  from  which  they  do 
not  pretend  to  have  the  power  of  extricating  the  country. 
All  that  they  ever  condescend  to  say,  in  answer  to  any  such 
remonstrances,  is  this  :  "  The  King  exercised  his  prerogative 
in  a  most  extraordinary  and  unjustifiable  manner.  We  have 
the  same  right  to  reject  his  Government,  that  he  had  to  turn 
out  ours ;  if  there  is  embarrassment,  it  is  none  of  our  creating, 
the  King  and  the  Tories  must  be  responsible  for  it.  We  care 
not  what  are  the  principles  now  avowed  by  them.  If  they  are 
not  Reformers,  they  cannot  govern  this  country,  and  are  not  to 
be  tolerated  at  the  head  of  affairs.  If  they  are,  it  is  not  to  be 
endured  that  they  should  usurp  our  places,  and  then  in  defiance 


1835.1  THE   OPPOSITIOX.  357 

of  all  their  principles,  and  in  opposition  to  all  their  previous 
conduct,  carry  into  effect  the  measures  which  we  should,  with 
perfect  consistency,  have  brought  forward.  We  will  listen 
therefore  to  nothing.  Out  they  shall  go,  and  till  \ve  have  got 
them  out,  we  will  never  rest,  nor  desist  from  our  attacks." 
"Quid  sit  futurum  eras,  fuge  quaerere,"  such  is  the  manner  of 
their  reasoning.  Their  intention  seems  to  be  to  avoid  doing 
any  thing  very  desperate,  but  to  keep  beating  the  Government, 
constantly  exhibiting  their  own  power  and  the  helpless  state 
of  their  adversaries  to  the  world.  Some  of  them  affect  to 
deny  their  union  with  O'Connell,  but  they  say  whatever  suits 
their  present  purpose.  In  the  case  of  Manners  Sutton,  they 
took  care  to  have  the  charges  against  him  disseminated  through 
the  country,  and  did  their  best  to  have  them  believed.  The 
constituencies  believed  them,  and  instructed  their  representa- 
tives accordingly ;  and  when,  by  these  means,  they  had  secured 
a  majority,  they  carae  down  at  the  last  moment  to  the  House 
of  Commons  and  owned  that  there  was  not  one  word  of  truth 
in  the  allegations  against  him.  John  Russell  had  written  a 
letter  (perhaps  more  than  one)  in  which  he  urged  opposition 
to  Sutton,  on  the  ground  of  his  having  advised  the  dissolution 
of  the  last  Parliament.  Goulburn  got  possession  of  this  let- 
ter, which  was  handed  to  him  during  the  debate,  he  does  not 
know  by  whom.  (Goulburn  told  me  this  himself.)  He  gave 
it  to  Peel  while  he  was  speaking,  or  just  before.  Peel  asked 
John  Russell  if  he  had  ever  said  so,  and  John  Russell  denied 
it.  Peel  did  not  produce  the  letter  as  he  might  have  done, 
but  the  story  was  told  in  the  Times  the  next  day.  So  in  the 
case  of  the  Bishop  of  Exeter,  and  Lord  John's  controversy 
with  him.  He  told  an  untruth,  undoubtedly  without  knowing 
it,  but  he  might  have  known  it ;  the  lie  did  its  business — 

In  public  spoke,  it  fell  with  greater  force, 

And,  heard  by  hundreds,  was  believed,  of  course ; 

and  though  he  afterward  made  a  very  handsome  apology, 
half  the  people  who  were  influenced  by  the  original  statement 
never  heard  of  the  contradiction,  or  cared  for  it,  if  they  did ; 
and  to  show  the  candor  of  the  Liberal  press,  the  Morning 
Chronicle,  and  other  papers  of  that  persuasion,  which  trum- 
peted forth  the  original  lie,  never  inserted  the  subsequent 
correspondence,  and  Lord  John's  contradiction  of  his  own 
statement.  I  like  him  so  much  personally,  that  I  am  sorry 
for  all  this.  To  return  to  the  party,  they  are  boiling  with 


358  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXVII. 

indignation  at  the  idea  of  another  dissolution,  and  talk  of 
such  advice  to  the  King  as  affording  good  ground  for  im- 
peachment, though  till  they  have  settled  the  House  of  Lords, 
and  had  their  wicked  will  of  it,  the  Ministers  would  be  pretty 
safe  before  that  tribunal  for  such  an  act.  It  is  the  general 
opinion  that  Peel  will  dissolve,  and  go  once  more  to  the 
country  if  he  can,  but  this  must  depend  upon  the  sort  of  oppo- 
sition they  offer,  and  the  majorities  they  can  bring  into  the 
field.  Adolphus  Fitzclarence  told  me  that  he  never  saw  the 
King  so  determined  as  he  is  to  stand  by  this  Government  to 
the  last,  and  I  do  not  think  any  of  these  men  will  prove  de- 
ficient in  courage. 

February  %<ith. — The  Opposition  expect  a  majority  of  from 
thirty  to  forty  on  the  amendment.  The  union  with  O'Connell 
is  complete,  however  long  it  may  last,  and  he  has  agreed  to 
give  up  Repeal,  and  they  are  to  find  some  lucrative  place  for 
him  when  they  get  in  again.  What  he  wants  is  to  be  a 
Master  of  the  Rolls  in  Ireland ;  the  rent  fails,  and  money  he 
must  have.  It  is  a  wretched  thing  that  there  is  no  buying 
that  man  now  without  disgrace;  well  would  it  have  been  to 
have  made  the  purchase  long  ago;  and  it  will  not  be  the  least 
curious  part  of  his  curious  life  if  this  bargain  takes  place,  and 
he  settles  down  into  the  regular  discharge  of  his  professional 
duties,  and  bond  fide  abandons  agitation.  There  was  great 
curiosity  last  night  to  know  whether  the  Speaker  dined  with 
Peel.  It  is  usual  for  him  to  dine  with  the  leader  of  the 
House  of  Commons  on  these  occasions,  and  hear  the  speech 
read.  Sutton  always  dined  with  Althorp,  but  then  Althorp 
put  him  in  the  chair.  Abercromby,  however,  very  properly 
told  Peel  the  difficulty  he  felt,  and  that  he  thought  he  should 
only  embarrass  the  company,  and  Peel  acquiesced  in  his  ex- 
cuse. 

February  25th. — The  King  went  down  to  Parliament  in 
the  midst  of  a  vast  crowd,  and  was  neither  well  nor  ill  re- 
ceived ;  nobody  takes  his  hat  off,  but  there  was  some  slight 
cheering.  The  speech  disappointed  rne,  it  was  rather  bald, 
and  so  thought  some  of  the  moderate  men.  In  the  morning 
there  was  a  meeting  at  the  King's  Head,  Palace  Yard,  to 
which  moderate  members  of  Parliament  were  invited  by  an 
anonymous  circular.  Thirty-three  were  present,  Sir  Oswald 
Mosley  in  the  chair.  Graham  came  to  it,  and  said  Lord 
Stanley  would  have  come  also,  but  that  he  had  invited  a  few 
of  his  friends  to  assemble  at  his  house,  with  an  object  similar 


1885.]  OPPOSITION   MEETINGS.  359 

to  that  which  had  brought  the  present  meeting1  together  and 
that  if  it  were  agreeable  to  any  of  these  gentlemen  to  meet 
his  friends  that  afternoon  he  should  be  glad  to  see  them. 
They  all  went,  and  there  were  present  forty-five  or  fifty,  of 
whom  eight  had  voted  for  Abercromby.  He  made  them  a 
speech,  stating  that  it  was  evident  the  Government  must  fall 
if  they  were  to  be  repeatedly  defeated,  and  his  view  of  the 
necessity  of  obstructing  violent  measures  directed  against 
them  was  something  to  this  effect.  The  result  was  an  agree- 
ment to  meet  again  this  day,  and  last  night  a  few  more  names 
were  added  to  their  list.  This  may,  therefore,  be  considered 
the  Stanley  party,  and  the  best  thing  that  can  happen  will  be 
that  this  party  should  grow  numerous.  Many  men  do  not  like 
the  composition  of  the  Government,  and  yet  wish  to  support 
it,  without  being  identified  with  it,  as  the  majority  of  those 
who  attend  the  meetings  are  disposed  to  support  Peel.  Stan- 
ley securing  them  as  his  adherents,  and  placing  himself  at 
their  head,  must  in  fact  subscribe  to  their  opinions  and  dispo- 
sition ;  and  as  men  are  more  inclined  to  join  a  numerous  than 
a  scanty  sect,  fresh  adherents  may  repair  to  that  standard. 
Eventually  he  will  join  the  Government,  and  the  best  chance 
of  weathering  the  storm  will  be  through  this  moderate  Liberal 
party. 

The  debate  was  opened  by  Sandon  in  a  speech  feebly 
delivered,  but  containing  good  matter.  Morpeth  made  a 
good  speech,  moving  the  amendment.  The  debate  was  very 
dull  indeed,  Dr.  Bowring  a  total  failure.  It  was  expected 
the  House  would  adjourn,  if  not  divide,  and  the  Speaker  put 
the  question,  when  Peel  got  up.  It  was  curious  to  see  the 
lulling  of  the  uproar,  and  the  shuffling  and  scrambling  into 
seats,  till  all  was  quiet  and  the  whole  coast  clear.  He  spoke 
very  ably  for  nearly  two  hours  and  a  half,  his  speech  nofr 

1  [This  meeting  (which  will  probably  have  important  results,  as  it  was  the 
foundation  of  that  which  met  afterward  at  Stanley's  and  the  formation  of  this 
party  will  turn  the  balance  on  the  Conservative  side)  originated  in  the  most 
insignificant  causes.  Sir  Oswald  Hosley,  an  ordinary  person,  and  a  Mr.  Young, 
talking  the  thing  over,  suggested  to  one  another  to  try  and  get  together  mod- 
erate men,  and  they  penned  and  sent  out  a  parcel  of  notes  addressed  to  those 
•who  they  thought  came  under  that  description,  bearing  no  signature,  and  giving 
no  indication  of  the  quarter  from  which  they  emanated.  When  the  thirty-three 
people  who  came  were  assembled,  they  found  themselves  for  the  most  part 
strangers  to  each  other,  and  each  asking  who  such  and  such  a  one  was.  Wnen 
Graham  invited  any  who  chose  to  go  to  Lord  Stanley's,  Moslcy  rather  wanted 
to  decline,  to  go  on  with  his  own  meeting,  and  play  an  important  part,  but 
nobodv  would  liear  of  this,  so  he  was  obliged  to  go  with  the  rest  to  Stanley's 
house."] 


360  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVII. 

containing  much  oratory,  but  in  a  tone  at  once  lofty  and 
firm,  yet  discreet,  calculated  to  inspire  confidence  and  to 
make  an  impression  on  all  who  were  impressible.  There  is 
no  use  in  entering  into  details  of  speeches  which  are  now 
reported  with  such  perfect  fidelity.  This  may  not  be  without 
its  effect  on  Stanley's  meeting  to-day,  and  his  speech  will  be 
listened  to  with  intense  anxiety  to-night.  The  Opposition 
(as  Duncannon  told  me)  expect  a  majority  of  between 
thirty  and  forty,  so  that  if  it  is  considerably  less  than  that,  it 
will  be  tantamount  to  a  defeat. 

February  26th. — Stanley  spoke  last  night,  attacking  both 
sides,  not  violently,  but  announcing  his  intention  to  vote 
against  the  amendment.  The  Government  were  annoyed  at 
his  speech,  especially  at  his  expressing  some  sort  of  disap- 
probation of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  which  he  would  have 
done  well  to  omit  for  many  reasons.  Lord  John  Russell,  by 
universal  admission  even  of  his  enemies,  made  an  excellent 
speech.  I  did  not  hear  either  him  or  Stanley.  John  has 
surpassed  all  expectations  hitherto,  as  leader,  which  is  matter 
of  great  exultation  to  his  party,  but  the  tide  is  already  be- 
ginning to  turn,  and  there  are  evident  symptoms  of  weakness 
in  the  great  unwieldy  heterogeneous  body  he  is  at  the  head 
of.  Tavistock  came  to  me  yesterday  morning,  and  told  me 
his  brother  had  sent  for  him,  "finding  himself  in  difficulties." 
He  did  not  particularize  them,  but  said  that  naturally  in  a 
situation  of  such  novelty,  he  found  considerable  difficulties 
to  contend  with.  He  owned  that  the  meeting  at  Lichfield 
House,  which  O'Connell  had  attended  by  invitation,  had 
alarmed  and  disgusted  many  of  the  old  Whigs,  and  it  was 
settled  there  should  be  no  more  such  meetings.  Then  there 
has  been  some  little  correspondence  between  Ward  and  Lord 
John  about  the  Irish  Church  question,  the  former  wishing  to 
manage  the  matter,  which  he  brought  forward  last  year,  and 
he  wrote  to  John  about  it,  who  replied  rather  shortly,  that 
he  himself  intended  to  submit  a  motion  on  the  subject.  This 
is  a  trifle,  but  trifles  like  these  contribute  to  form  an  aggre- 
gate of  importance,  and  the  moment  there  is  any  beginning 
of  disunion  or  weakness  in  such  a  party,  a  very  short  time 
will  make  it  fall  to  pieces. 

Lord  Stanley  assembled  his  followers  again  yesterday  to 
the  number  of  about  fifty  ;  other  adhesions,  and  half-adhesions, 
occurred  in  the  course  of  the  evening,  and  the  result  is  an 
expectation  that  the  boasted  majority  of  thirty  or  forty  will 


1835.]  LORD* STANLEY'S   OBJECTS.  361 

dwindle  down  to  four  or  five,  or  perhaps  be  no  majority  at 
all.  The  erection  of  this  standard  will  therefore,  in  all  prob- 
ability, save  the  Government,  and  defeat  the  factious  designs 
of  the  great  Whig  and  Radical  coalition;  but  I  distrust 
Stanley  himself,  and  see  the  great  chance  there  is  of  his 
vanity  and  selfish  ambition  producing  other  difficulties,  the 
pressure  of  which,  though  he  may  not  feel  it  now,  will  some 
time  hence  become  heavy  to  him.  His  object  at  present  is 
to  gather  to  himself  the  largest  party  he  can ;  but  though  he 
may  lead  them,  he  can  only  lead  them  the  way  they  are 
minded  to  go,  and  the  design  of  his  friends  is  to  show 
themselves  Conservatives  without  being  Tories,  to  save  this 
Government,  not  from  love  to  it  but  from  fear  of  its  op- 
ponents and  of  the  alternative.  He  certainly  may  have  the 
appearance  of  being  the  arbiter  of  all  great  questions,  and 
actually  be  so  to  a  certain  degree,  but  as  his  ultimate  object 
must  be  his  return  to  office,  he  can  only  hope  to  return  (at 
least  with  any  prospects  of  success)  with  Peel  and  the  Tories. 
Tt  is,  therefore,  egregious  folly  in  him,  by  an  affectation*  of 
neutrality  and  independence,  to  shock  and  disgust  that  great 
body,  which  must  ever  be  the  strength  of  a  Conservative 
Government,  by  twitting  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and 
attacking  with  sarcasms  or  reproaches  certain  measures 
or  omissions,  or  particular  members  of  Government,  and  espe- 
cially the  Duke  himself.  The  Duke  is,  after  all,  the  idol  of  the 
Tories,  and  they  will  not  endure  that  a  youth  like  Stanley 
shall  avail  himself  of  his  accidental  advantages  to  treat  their 
great  man  with  levity  and  disrespect ;  and  all  this  he  has  not 
coolness,  sagacity,  and  temper  enough  to  see,  nor  to  discern 
that  his  most  becoming  and  dignified  course  would  be  to  con- 
duct himself  with  a  seriousness  and  gravity  suitable  to  the  im- 
portance of  the  crisis  and  of  the  part  he  aspires  to  play  and 
the  magnitude  of  the  interests  which  are  at  stake.  If  he  be- 
lieves in  his  conscience  that  the  Opposition  are  animated  with 
a  spirit  of  faction,  and  that  their  triumph  would  be  the  fore- 
runner of  revolution  or  confusion,  he  should  take  his  stand  on 
a  great  principle,  and  support  the  Government  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  might  best  enable  it  to  confound  the  schemes  of  its  an- 
tagonists ;  but  all  this  time  he  is  dreading  to  be  called  a  Tory, 
and  he  does  not  certainly  give  up  the  hope  and  notion  of  re- 
uniting himself  with  the  moderate  section  of  his  late  colleagues. 
He  endeavors  to  keep  up  an  amicable  intercourse  with  them, 
and  to  make  them  believe  that  he  has  no  intention  of  connect- 
38 


363  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVII 

ing  himself  more  closely  with  this  Government.  Such  am- 
biguous conduct,  and  his  occasional  asperities  and  incivilities, 
have  begun  already  to  disgust  and  alienate  the  Tories ;  and 
though  they  have  too  much  need  of  him  now  not  to  be  obliged 
to  restrain  the  expression  of  their  feelings,  the  time  may  come 
when  he  will  have  need  of  them,  and  he  will  then  find  the  in- 
convenient consequences  of  his  present  behavior. 

February  27th. — They  divided  at  half-past  one  this  morn- 
ing, 309  to  302.  I  Avent  over  the  list  before  dinner,  and  made 
out  a  majority  of  six  (correct  all  but  one).  Gisborne,  Howick, 
and  Graham,  spoke  tolerably,  O'Connell  very  good  for  the  first 
ten  minutes,  and  very  bad  all  the  rest.  I  was  not  there. 
Certainly  Stanley's  conduct  is  queer.  Notwithstanding  the 
sharp  things  he  said  against  Government  in  his  speech  on 
Wednesday,  and  various  little  marks  of  scorn  he  throws  out 
here  and  there,  he  said  to  Francis  Egerton  on  Tuesday,  after 
all  the  Opposition  men  had  been  speaking,  "  Whj'  does  not 
Peel  get  up,  or  at  least  put  up  one  of  the  Government,  to  put 
an  end  to  all  this  balderdash  ?  "  Francis  went  and  told  Peel, 
who  was  very  much  out  of  sorts  (at  the  state  of  the  debate  I 
suppose),  and  asked  rather  angrily  for  Sir  G.  Clerk.  Francis 
went  to  look  for  Clerk,  and  when  he  returned  Peel  was  on  his 
legs.  This  he  told  me  yesterday  morning. 

March  5th. — Met  Mulgrave  at  dinner  at  Seaford's,  and  he 
still  talks  with  confidence  of  turning  the  Government  out; 
that  five  or  six  of  Stanley's  tail  have  whisked  round  again  to 
the  Whigs;  that  they  can  beat  the  Government  on  every 
question  by  greater  majorities  than  on  the  two  they  have 
already  tried,  which  were  the  worst  for  them,  and  that  any 
other  Government  (of  their  party)  would  get  through  the  busi- 
ness of  the  session. 

March  llth. — The  repeal  of  the  malt  tax  was  defeated  by 
a  majority  of  158,  much  more  than  was  necessary,  and  it  is 
thought  that  Government  would  have  done  wisely,  when  they 
found  they  were  sure  of  not  being  beaten,  to  allow  their 
friends  to  redeem  their  pledges  (or  as  many  of  them  as  stood 
deeply  committed),  for  it  will  be  found  that  several  of  them 
v.-ill  suffer  greatly  from  this  vote  in  their  counties.  Peel  (as 
usual)  made  an  admirable  speech  ;  he  continues  to  distinguish 
himself  by  a  marked  superiority,  both  in  oratory  and  manage- 
ment, which  cannot  fail  to  produce  a  great  effect  both  in  the 
House  of  Commons  and  the  country.  There  is  nobody  who 
approaches  him,  and  everv  dav  he  displays  rr.cre  and  mere  his 


1835.]  APPOINTMENT   OF   LORD   LONDONDERRY.  363 

capacity  for  government  and  undoubted  fitness  for  the  situa- 
tion he  is  in.  He  cannot  help  being  a  great  man,  because  he 
lives  in  an  age  of  pigmies ;  and  he  will  be  as  great  as  great 
talents  without  a  great  mind  can  make  anybody.  Even  some 
of  the  violent  Radicals  say  that  if  Peel's  associates  could  be 
disposed  of,  they  would  not  object  to  him. 

March  13th. — There  was  a  meeting  of  the  Opposition  at 
Lichfield  House  yesterday,  to  consider  what  they  should  do 
about  Hume's  motion  to  grant  the  supplies  for  three  months, 
and  the  result  was  that  the  design  should  be  abandoned. 
Thus  they  have  shown  their  teeth  without  daring  to  bite. 
Many  of  their  people  would  not  have  gone  with  them,  and  if 
this  grand  project  failed  now  thus  early  in  the  session,  still 
less  chance  will  it  have  at  a  later  period.  Peel's  skill  and 
great  superiority,  and  the  disunion  and  uncertainty  of  the  vast 
unwieldy  body  opposed  to  him,  will  carry  him  through. 

March  ~L4:th. — Last  night  was  a  terribly  damaging  night 
to  the  Government,  and  fully  justifies  all  that  I,  in  common 
with  almost  everybody  else,  thought  of  that  miserable  appoint- 
ment of  Londonderry.1  Shiel  brought  it  forward,  and  a  storm 
burst  from  every  side.  Stanley  made  a  strong  speech  against 
it,  and  Mahon  totally  broke  down.  Peel  spoke  cleverly,  as 
usual,  but  fighting  under  difficulties,  and  dodging  about,  and 
shifting  his  ground  with  every  mark  of  weakness.  The  result 
is  that  Londonderry  cannot  go,  and  must  either  resign  or  his 
nomination  be  canceled.  This  is  miserable  weakness  on  the 
part  of  the  Government,  and  an  awkward  position  to  be  placed 
in.  It  is  very  questionable  if  the  Duke  of  Wellington  will  not 
resign  upon  it,  which  would  make  another  great  embarrass- 
ment, for  there  is  nobody  to  fill  his  place.  It  serves  the  Gov- 
ernment right,  and  the  Duke  especially,  for  having  built  up 
such  a  wall  to  run  their  heads  against.  They  knew  the  loath- 
ing people  had  for  the  man,  how  odious  and  ridiculous  he  had 
made  himself,  how  obnoxious  and  indefensible  the  appoint- 
ment would  be,  and  yet,  though  there  was  no  reason  or  occa- 
sion for  it,  and  their  circumstances  were  so  difficult  that  the 
utmost  caution  and  prudence  were  requisite  in  all  their  sub- 
ordinate and  collateral  proceedings,  as  well  as  in  the  great 
and  essential  ones,  they  had  the  blind  and  obstinate  folly  to 
make  this  appointment.  It  is  not  contempt  of  public  opinion 
in  the  Duke,  but  it  is  that  ignorance  or  indifference,  or  disre- 

1  [The  Marquis  of  Londonderry  had  been  appointed  Embassador  to  St. 
Petersburg.] 


364  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVII. 

gard  of  it,  which  has  beeif  the  besetting  sin  of  his  political  life, 
and  has  so  largely  affected  his  political  sayings  and  doings. 
Peel  ought  to  have  known  better,  and  have  taken  a  more  cor- 
rect view  of  his  position,  and  the  effect  such  an  appointment 
would  have  on  it.  It  is  difficult  to  say  what  consequences 
may  flow  from  this  affair.  The  Government  can  stand  no 
shocks  and  buffets  ;  if  they  go  on,  it  can  only  be  by  the  most 
dexterous  management,  and  by  obtaining  constant  advantages 
in  the  petty  and  daily  warfare  of  Parliament,  and  thus  gather- 
ing confidence  by  degrees,  that  they  can  accomplish  it.  It 
would  be  too  mortifying  if  such  a  man  should  be  the  cause  of 
the  downfall  of  the  Government  and  of  all  the  evils  that  would 
result  therefrom.  Knatchbull,  who  was  dragged  into  the  dis- 
cussion by  Peel  (in  order  to  make  a  diversion),  defended  him- 
self and  spoke  remarkably  well.  He  is  the  only  Cabinet  Min- 
ister who  has  shown  any  thing  like  a  faculty  to  support  Peel. 
It  was  rather  amusing  to  see  the  attempt  of  Peel  to  take  the 
dogs  off  the  scent  of  Londonderry  and  throw  them  on  that  of 
Knatchbull ;  but  they  were  soon  whipped  off,  and  put  again 
upon  the  right  track.  There  was  one  good  hit.  A  Sir  George 
Strickland,  attacking  Knatchbull,  said,  '"  Talk  of  the  Right 
Honorable  Baronet  as  a  Reformer,  indeed,  when  I  remember 
his  coming  down  night  after  night  during  the  Reform  Bill, 
and  opposing  every  part  and  particle  of  it,  clause  after  clause," 
when  Knatchbull  took  his  hat  off  and  said,  "  I  was  not  a  mem- 
ber of  that  Parliament." 

March  15th. — The  Londonderry  debate  has  made  a  great 
sensation,  and  is  a  source  of  prodigious  triumph  and  exultation 
to  the  Opposition.  In-  the  morning  I  met  Lady  Peel,  who  was 
full  of  compassion  for  Londonderry,  and  said,  "  He  had  be- 
haved very  nobly  about  it."  Nobody  doubts  that  he  cannot 
go,  whether  he  resigns  voluntarily  or  not ;  but,  end  how  it 
may,  it  is  a  disastrous  occurrence.  If  Government  should 
persist  in  the  appointment,  they  would  be  beaten  by  a  great 
majority,  and  the  House  of  Commons  would  vote  him  out ;  if 
it  is  given  up,  it  is  a  monstrous  concession  to  the  violence  and 
power  of  the  House  of  Commons,  for,  however  objectionable 
the  appointment  may  have  been,  it  is  not  so  outrageous  as  to 
call  for  the  interference  of  Parliament  with  the  King's  un- 
doubted prerogative,  and  on  the  whole  the  principle  of  such 
interference  may  be  considered  more  inconvenient  than  sub- 
mitting to  the  appointment  itself.  It  will  probably  lead  be- 
fore long  to  other  encroachments  upon  the  Executive  power, 


1835.]  THE   DUKE   ON  LORD   LONDONDERRY.  365 

and  we  shall  soon  see  the  House  of  Commons  interfering  about 
every  thing. 

In  the  evening  I  met  the  Duke  of  Wellington  at  Lady 
Howe's,  who  talked  about  the  affair,  and  said  that  he  was  not 
particularly  partial  to  the  man,  nor  ever  had  been ;  but  that 
he  was  very  fit  for  that  pest,  was  an  excellent  Embassador, 
procured  more  information  and  obtained  more  insight  into  the 
affairs  of  a  foreign  Court  than  anybody,  and  that  he  was  the 
best  relater  of  what  passed  at  a  conference,  and  wrote  the 
best  account  of  a  conversation,  of  any  man  he  knew.  I  said 
this  might  be  all  true,  but  that  though  he  knew  it,  the  gener- 
ality of  people  did  not,  and  the  public  could  only  judge  of 
him  by  what  they  heard  or  read  of  his  speeches,  and  what 
was  related  of  his  conduct  on  former  occasions ;  that  on  that 
account  he  was  very  obnoxious,  and  that  his  violent  and  in- 
temperate attacks  upon  the  foreign  policy  of  the  late  Govern- 
ment, the  sentiments  he  had  displayed  generally  had  raised  a 
great  prejudice  against  him,  and  I  had  therefore  been  sure 
from  the  moment  I  heard  of  the  appointment  that  it  would  be 
severely  attacked,  and  regretted  exceedingly  for  that  reason 
that  it  had  ever  been  made.  I  had  told  Lady  Peel  the  same 
thing,  for  it  is  difficult  to  resist  telling  them  the  real  truth ; 
and  I  know  not  why  it  should  not  be  told  them. 

Last  night  I  met  Lord  Howick,  who  is  bitter  enough 
against  the  Ministers,  and  expressed  his  earnest  desire  that 
that  they  might  be  well  dragged  through  the  mire,  but  not  be 
turned  out.  I  asked,  "  Why,  if  he  wished  they  should  stay  in, 
he  desired  that  they  should  be  discredited?"  and  he  replied, 
"  That  it  would  be  very  difficult  at  present  to  replace  them, 
but  that  he  saw  the  prospective  means,  and  he  would  have 
them  go  on  till  the  time  was  ripe  for  change,  but  that  they 
should  be  made  every  day  more  odious."  These  means,  I 
doubt  not,  are  the  reconciliation  of  Stanley  with  the  Whigs, 
which  is  clearly  contemplated  by  both  one  and  the  other. 
Hobhouse's  speech  the  other  night  was  very  civil  to  Stanley, 
no  doubt  with  that  view,  and  much  personal  intimacy  is  affected 
between  him  and  the  Whig  leaders.  Then  much  light  is 
thrown  upon  it  in  my  mind  by  the  account  I  have  just  heard 
from  Charlton  (who  enlisted  under  the  Stanley  banner)  of 
the  tone  and  animus  displayed  at  the  last  meeting  at  Stanley's. 
There  Stanley  was  pressed  by  Mr.  Young  to  declare  in  strong 
terms  his  want  of  confidence  in  the  Government ;  and  Patrick 
Stewart  said  that  if  Hume's  motion,  for  limiting  the  supplies 


366  REIGN    OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVII. 

to  three  months,  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell, he  thought  he  must  vote  for  it.  Stanley  opposed  this 
suggestion,  and  declared  his  disapprobation  (let  who  would 
bring  it  on)  of  so  strong  a  measure  as  stopping  the  supplies, 
and  he  said  he  thought  the  want  of  confidence  might  be  suf- 
ficiently evinced  without  having  recourse  to  any  murderous 
measures,  any  thing  absolutely  destructive  of  the  Government. 
The  general  tone  and  disposition  of  the  meeting  was  very 
inimical  to  the  present  Ministry,  and  Charlton  was  himself  so 
little  satisfied  with  what  passed,  and  especially  with  Stanley's 
apparent  bias  and  feeling,  that  he  wrote  to  him  to  say  that  he 
had  joined  his  party  on  the  express  notion  that  he  was  prepared 
to  give  the  Government  a  fair  trial,  and  to  ask  whether  he  did 
not  understand  him  correctly  in  attributing  to  him  still  such 
an  intention.  He  replied  very  courteously,  and  tolerably  sat- 
isfactorily, but  it  certainly  seems  probable  that  he  is  more 
disposed  to  reunite  with  his  old  friends  than  to  form  any  con- 
nection with  these  men,  though  what  is  uppermost  in  his 
mind  is  to  raise  his  own  consequence  and  authority,  and  make 
the  best  bargain  he  eventually  can.  Charlton  says  that  he 
has  since  tried  to  engage  him  in  conversation  upon  the  subject 
of  the  democratic  tendency  of  the  times,  but  that  he  has  no 
mind  to  discuss  the  subject.  Charlton  is  such  a  violent,  fool- 
ish, dangerous  fellow,  that  it  is  no  wonder  if  Stanley  kept 
aloof  from  him,  and  was  not  disposed  to  be  more  than  merely 
civil  to  him. 

March  Yltli. — Londonderry  made  a  good  speech  in  the 
House  of  Lords  last  night,  gentlemanlike  and  temperate. 
He  got  a  good  deal  of  empty  praise  in  both  Houses  in  lieu 
of  the  solid  pudding  he  is  obliged  to  give  up.  He  said  "  that 
he  had  had  no  communication  with  the  Government,  nor  had 
sought  any  advice,  neither  had  any  been  tendered  to  him ;  that 
he  had,  after  due  deliberation,  determined  on  the  course  he 
should  pursue."  All  this  is  untrue  ;  he  went  to  Peel  on  Satur- 
day morning,  and  told  him  he  was  ready  to  do  what  he  pleased  ; 
but  Peel  said  he  could  give  him  no  opinion.  He  then  con- 
sulted various  people,  the  Dukes  of  Cumberland  and  Bucking- 
ham inter  alios,  who  advised  him  not  to  resign.  It  appeared 
to  be  his  object  to  obtain  opinions  to  that  effect,  and  up  to 
late  yesterday  afternoon  nobody  knew  what  he  meant  to  do  ; 
so  much  so,  that  the  Duke  left  the  Foreign  Office  without 
being  apprised  of  his  intentions,  and  desired  if  any  letter 
came  from  him  that  it  might  be  sent  after  him  to  the  House 


1835.]  LORD   LONDONDERRY  RESIGNS.  367 

of  Lords.  He  received  the  letter  on  the  stairs,  which  he  read 
and  instantly  sent  to  Peel.  It  has,  altogether,  been  a  misera- 
ble affair,  and  it  is  certainly  true  what  John  Russell  said,  that 
in  "  the  experiment  they  are  now  making,  that  which  the 
Right  Honorable  Baronet  called  a  fair  trial,  they  were  running 
considerable  hazard  that  the  most  useful  prerogatives  of  the 
Crown  would  lose  that  dignity  and  respect  in  which  they  had 
formerly  been  held."  It  is  clearly  true  that  this  most  danger- 
ous precedent  of  interference  has  occurred  because  the  Gov- 
ernment has  no  strength  to  prevent  it,  and  because  we  have 
the  anomaly  of  a  Government  beating  up  against  a  hostile 
majority.  The  man  was  utterly  unfit,  and  ought  never  to  have 
been  appointed,  but  the  case  against  him  (such  as  it  appears 
in  their  hands)  is  quite  insufficient  to  warrant  the  interference 
of  Parliament. 

I  take  it  that  the  effect  abroad  will  be  prodigious,  for 
though  Londonderry  resigns  of  his  own  accord,  and  Peel  says 
*he  would  have  stood  by  him  if  he  had  not,  the  simple  case  is 
(and  such  will  be  the  appearance  of  it  all  over  Europe)  that 
the  King  appointed  Londonderry  Embassador  to  Russia,  and 
the  House  of  Commons  canceled  the  appointment. 

Everything  meanwhile  continues  in  a  state  of  uncertainty. 
The  Opposition  is  not  united  ;  the  Stanley  party,  with  their 
leader,  observe  a  suspicious  and  suspected  neutrality,  but  the 
Government  is  at  their  mercy  whenever  they  join  the  Oppo- 
sition, or,  indeed,  if  they  keep  aloof.  Such  a  state  of  things 
cannot  go  on  very  long,  and  the  fate  of  the  Government  must 
be  settled  one  way  or  the  other.  Every  day  produces  fresh 
indications  of  Peel's  superiority,  and  his  capacity  for  the  lead 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  but  he  does  not  appear  to  have 
gained  much  in  these  points  where  he  was  most  deficient — 
cordiality  and  communicativeness.  Francis  Egerton  came  to 
me  to-day  and  complained  that  on  the  Londonderry  debate, 
finding  that  nobody  spoke  on  the  Treasury  Bench,  he  went 
and  sat  by  Peel  and  offered  to  speak,  but  could  get  no  answer 
from  him ;  and  Ashley  was  furious  because  when  Hume  asked 
for  some  information  on  some  point  of  Navy  estimates,  on 
which  he  (Ashley)  had  taken  pains  to  prepare  himself,  Peel 
would  not  let  him  give  it,  but  took  it  out  of  his  hands.  All 
this  is  very  impolitic,  and  shows  that  whatever  else  he  has 
gained  by  experience,  he  has  not  gained  the  art  of  making 
himself  popular  with  his  own  adherents  in  the  way  that  Cas- 
tlereagh  and  Canning  used  to  be ;  and,  therefore,  however  he 


368  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVII. 

may  be  looked  up  to  as  a  Minister,  he  will  never  be  followed 
with  the  same  personal  devotion  that  they  commanded. 

March  2Qth. — I  have  been  laid  up  with  the  gout  all  this 
week,  and  could  not  go  out  to  see  and  hear  what  is  going  on. 
On  Tuesday  night  Peel  brought  in  the  Dissenters'  Marriage 
Bill,  and  his  plan  gave  almost  general  satisfaction  except  to 
those  whom  nothing  can  satisfy.  The  Opposition  papers  gave 
it  a  sort  of  cold  and  sulky  approbation,  evincing  IIOAV  little 
the  loudest  advocates  for  reforms  of  this  nature  really  care 
about  them.  The  Morning  Chronicle  seemed  to  regret  that 
Peel's  Bill  should  give  satisfaction  mere  than  it  rejoiced  that 
the  Dissenters  Avere  to  obtain  it.  Marriage  is  made  a  civil 
contract  for  the  Dissenters,  and  a  slight  civil  form  is  substi- 
tuted for  the  religious  ceremony  of  the  Church  of  England. 
This  relieves  them  from  all  their  grievance ;  but  it  is  now 
said  that  they  lie  under  a  degradation,  because  it  is  not  also 
made  a  civil  contract  for  everybody  else,  and  that  the  law 
ought  to  be  changed  universally.  I  think  it  would  be  better* 
if  it  was  a  civil  contract,  but  nothing  can  be  more  captious 
than  such  an  objection,  or  more  impertinent,  and  I  do  not  de- 
sire to  see  the  law  changed,  because  I  believe  the  majority  of 
members  of  the  Church  of  England  are  content  that  it  should 
remain  as  it  is,  and  that  their  feelings  or  prejudices  would  be 
shocked  by  the  alteration. 

The  King  is  in  great  indignation  at  the  proceedings  in  the 
House  of  Commons  about  Londonderry.  The  Duke  sent  Lon- 
donderry'^ letter  of  resignation  to  him,  and  his  Majesty  re- 
turned it  with  a  letter  in  which  he  expressed  his  approbation 
of  Londonderry's  conduct,  and  added  that  "he  was  more  than 
ever  satisfied  of  the  correctness  of  his  determination  in  Novem- 
ber last,  to  refuse  his  consent  to  his  Government  being  led 
by  Lord  John  Russell  in  the  House  of  Commons,  since  he  had 
witnessed  his  conduct  upon  the  occasion,  and  the  support  he 
had  given  to  the  unconstitutional  attack  that  had  been  made 
upon  this  appointment."  He  made  no  allusion  to  Stanley, 
whose  conduct  must  have  galled  him  still  more. 

Sir  E.  Sugden  has  resigned  the  Chancellorship  of  Ireland 
because  his  wife  is  not  received  at  Court.  He  might  have  as- 
certained very  easily  beforehand  what  would  happen,  or  have 
contrived  to  keep  her  away  from  Dublin.  It  was  understood 
when  he  took  the  Great  Seal  that  he  declined  being  made  a 
peer,  on  account  of  the  illegitimacy  of  his  eldest  son.  Half 
the  world  had  never  heard  of  Lady  Sugden,  or  knew  any  thing 


1835.]  SIR   EDWARD  AND   LADY  SUGDEN.  369 

of  her  history ;  and  as  she  is  an  excellent  woman,  charitable 
and  kind-hearted,  I  fancy  she  has  moved  without  obstruction 
in  his  natural  circle  of  society.  He  went  to  Ireland  before 
any  Lord-Lieutenant  was  named,  and  Lndy  Sugden  was  re- 
ceived as  a  matter  of  course.  When  Lady  Haddington  was 
apprised  of  her  origin  and  history  she  foresaw  the  difficulty, 
and  asked  the  Queen  what  she  was  to  do.  Her  Majesty  told 
her  to  do  what  she  pleased,  but  that  certainly  she  could  not 
be  received  at  Court  here.  The  Lady-Lieutenant  therefore 
was  compelled  to  decline  receiving  her,  for  all  Ireland  would 
have  been  affronted  had  she  received  at  the  Castle  a  lady  not 
presentable  at  St.  James's.  Sugden  was  very  angry,  and  his 
indignation  arose  principally,  it  would  seem,  from  Lady  Can- 
terbury's having  been  received  at  Court,  which  he  considers 
(with  some  reason)  as  a  case  equally  flagrant.  Her  reception 
\vas  a  matter  of  bargain,  I  forget  at  this  moment  on  what  oc- 
casion, and  certainly  a  strong  measure.  The  talk  is  that 
James  Parke  will  go  to  Ireland,  and  Sugden  return  to  the  Bar, 
which  will  be  hard  upon  those  who  had  shared  his  vast  busi- 
ness, especially  on  the  silk-gown  men. 

March  21st. — Lord  Grey  is  cqme  to  town  ;  he  is  very 
strong  against  the  Radicals,  and  highly  disgusted  at  so  many 
of  them  having  been  admitted  to  the  Opposition  meetings. 
He  and  Stanley  met  with  excessive  cordiality.  Sefton  was 
there  when  Stanley  called  upon  him.  The  King  received 
Lord  Grey  at  the  levee  with  such  civility  and  attention  as  to 
excite  peculiar  observation. 

March  22c?. — A  few  nights  ago  Brougham  was  speaking 
in  the  House  of  Lords  (upon  Lord  Radnor's  motion  about 
university  oaths),  and  was  attacking,  or  rather  beginning  to 
attack,  the  Duke  of  Wellington  in  that  tone  of  insolent  sar- 
casm which  is  so  familiar  to  him,  when  in  the  midst  of  his 
harangue  the  Duke  from  the  opposite  side  lifted  up  his  finger, 
and  said  loud  enough  to  be  heard,  "  Now  take  care  what  you 
say  next."  As  if  panic-stricken,  Brougham  broke  off,  and  ran 
upon  some  other  tack.  The  House  is  so  narrow,  that  Lords 
can  almost  whisper  to  each  other  across  it,  and  the  menacing 
action  and  words  of  the  Duke  reached  Brougham  at  once. 
This  odd  anecdote  rests  upon  much  concurrent  evidence.  Al- 
vanley  told  it  to  De  Ros,  and  Lord  Salisbury  said  he  was  sit- 
ting close  to  the  Duke,  and  witnessed  it  all.  The  Chancellor 
afterward  confirmed  it. 

On  Friday   night,  on   the  debate  upon  Irish  Tithes,  Peel 


370  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVII. 

bowled  down  his  opponents,  Howick,  Rice,  and  Thomson, 
like  so  many  ninepins ;  for,  besides  his  vigor  and  power  in 
debate,  his  memory  is  so  tenacious  and  correct,  that  they 
never  can  make  any  mistakes  Avithout  his  detecting  them  ; 
and  he  is  inconceivably  ready  in  all  references  to  former  de- 
bates and  their  incidents,  and  the  votes  and  speeches  of  in- 
dividual members.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  he  is  a  great 
performer  in  his  present  part.  Old  Sir  Robert,  who  must 
have  been  a  man  of  exceeding  shrewdness,  predicted  that  his 
full  energies  would  never  be  developed  till  he  was  in  the 
highest  place,  and  had  the  sole  direction  of  affairs  ;  and  his 
brother  Lawrence,  who  told  this  to  Henry  de  Ros,  said  that 
in  early  youth  he  evinced  the  same  obstinate  and  unsocial 
disposition,  which  has  since  been  so  remarkable  a  feature  of 
his  character.  I  wish  he  was  not  hampered  with  the  Irish 
Church  fetters,  which  he  cannot  throw  off. 

Peel  wrote  a  letter  to  Hume  demanding  an  explanation 
of  certain  offensive  expressions  he  had  made  use  of  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  got  an  answer,  which  was  sufficient, 
though  not  very  civil.  It  was  rather  unnecessary  that  he 
should  take  any  notice  of  Avhat  Hume  said,  but  Peel  is  a 
man  of  very  high  and  prompt  courage,  and  seems  to  have 
made  a  rule  to  himself  never  to  suffer  impertinence  from  any 
quarter  to  pass  unchecked.  It  is  certainly  of  great  service  to 
a  public  man,  and  it  largely  increases  the  estimation  in  which 
he  is  held,  to  estsblish  such  a  character.  It  is  no  small  det- 
riment to  Brougham  that  he  is  accounted  an  arrant  coward  ; 
and  it  is  remarkable  that  Peel  never  was  known  to  deal  in  the 
insolence,  and  bullying,  and  offensive  personalities  in  which 
the  other  has  so  copiously  indulged,  both  in  Parliament  and 
at  the  Bar. 

March  24£/i. — A  meeting  at  Lichfield's  yesterday,  when 
they  resolved  to  reserve  themselves  for  the  great  battle  on 
Monday  next,  in  full  persuasion  that  Peel  will  resign  after  the 
division.  Whether  he  means  it  or  not,  I  have  no  idea,  but  it 
is  surprising  to  me  that  they  do  not  think  it  better  to  attack 
him  on  his  Tithe  Bill  than  on  the  Appropriation  clause ;  for  I 
think  he  must  go  out  if  beaten  on  the  former,  but  need  not 
if  beaten  on  the  latter.  They  are,  however,  bent  upon  his 
expulsion  ;  and  Lichfield  (who  is  more  or  less  in  their  secrets) 
told  me  they  feel  no  difficulty  as  to  making  another  Govern- 
ment uhder  Melbourne's  auspices.  There  was  a  great  dinner 
of  the  Opposition  at  the  Duke  of  Sussex's  on  Sunday,  to 


A   GOVERNMENT   DEFEAT.  371 

which  Brougham  was  not  invited.  It  will  not  be  the  least  of 
their  difficulties  how  to  deal  with  him.  Sugden,  after  all, 
stays  in  Ireland.  The  Bar  were  up  in  arms  at  his  menaced 
return  among  them,  which  would  have  had  the  effect  of  half 
ruining  some  of  those  who  took  silk  gowns  upon  his  retire- 
ment. His  absurdity  will,  therefore,  have  had  no  other  effect 
than  that  of  revealing  his  wife's  misfortune  to  the  whole 
world  in  a  very  noisy  way.  Lord  Canterbury  gives  up  Canada 
on  account  of  his  wife's  health,  and  probably  not  liking  to 
face  the  disagreeable  things  that  would  have  been  said  about 
himself  and  her.  Lord  Aberdeen  has  offered  it  to  Stratford 
Canning,  who,  though  clever  enough,  is  so  difficile  d  vivre, 
that  nobody  can  be  less  calculated  for  conciliatory  objects ; 
so  that  for  a  situation  which  required  an  agent  of  strong 
understanding  and  good  temper,  they  successively  selected  a 
foolish  man  of  good  temper,  and  a  clever  man  of  bad. 

March  26th. — On  Tuesday  night  Government  was  beaten 
on  a  division  about  the  Chatham  election ;  a  thing  of  no  conse- 
quence in  itself,  but  the  whole  affair  was  mismanaged.  John 
Russell  had  said  he  should  not  divide,  but  his  people  were 
not  to  be  restrained.  Peel  would  have  given  way,  but  his 
\vhippers-in  told  him  he  was  strong  enough  in  the  House  to 
carry  it,  which  only  shows  how  stupid  they  are.  It  is  now 
universally  believed  that  he  will  resign  next  week,  after  the 
division  on  John  Russell's  motion,  upon  which  he  is  sure  to 
be  beaten  by  twenty  or  thirty  votes.  I  am  inclined  to  believe 
that  he  has  made  known  his  intentions  to  Stanley,  for  the 
latter  entertains  no  doubt  on  the  subject.  The  Greyites  are 
all  alive,  and  patting  Lord  Grey  on  the  back  all  day  long  to 
incline  him  to  obey  the  summons  they  confidently  expect  him 
to  receive  from  the  King.  It  is  very  obvious  that  Peel  can- 
not go  on  ;  and  I  doubt  much  if  he  could  even  were  he  to 
obtain  a  majority  on  Monday.  His  physical  strength  would 
not  suffice  for  the  harassing  warfare  that  is  waged  against 
him,  the  whole  brunt  of  which  he  bears  alone.  This,  how- 
ever, is  his  own  fault,  for  he  will  not  let  anybody  else  take  a 
part,  whether  from  distrust  of  his  colleagues,  or  his  own  rage 
for  being  all  in  all.  Then,  from  the  relative  constitution  of 
the  two  parties,  he  must  be  in  continual  danger  of  defeats 
upon  minor  and  collateral  questions,  or  suddenly-started 
points.  His  party  is  in  great  part  composed  of  the  rich  and 
fashionable,  who  are  constantly  drawn  away  by  one  attraction 
or  another,  and  whose  habitual  haunts  are  the  clubs  and  houses 


372  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVII. 

at  the  west  end  of  the  town;  and  it  is  next  to  impossible  to 
collect  his  scattered  forces  at  a  moment's  notice.  The  Oppo- 
sition contains  a  dense  body  of  fellows  who  have  no  vocation 
out  of  the  walls  of  the  "House  of  Commons;  who  put  up  in  the 
vicinity;  either  do  not  dine  at  all,  or  get  their  meals  at  some 
adjoining  chop-house,  throng  the  benches  early,  and  never 
think  of  moving  till  everything  is  over;  constituting  a  steady, 
never-failing  foundation,  the  slightest  addition  to  which  will 
generally  secure  a  majority  in  the  present  state  of  the  House. 
In  old  times  the  placemen  and  immediate  hangers-on  of  Gov- 
ernment, who  make  it  their  business  to  attend  in  order  to 
carry  the  public  business  through,  afforded  a  regular  certain 
majority  for  the  Ministers  of  the  day;  but  now  this  household 
phalanx  is  outnumbered  by  these  blackguards,  the  chief  of 
whom  are  O'Connell's  Tail  and  the  lower  Radicals.  All  this 
immensely  increases  Peel's  embarrassment;  and  the  tactics  of 
his  opponents  have  been  extremely  able,  considered  with  a 
view  to  obstruct  the  march  of  Government.  While  the  leaders 
have  abstained  from  any  violent  measure,  and  liave  always 
resolved  at  their  consultations  not  to  stop  the  supplies  or  im- 
pede the  public  service,  their  active  partisans  have  taken  good 
care  to  produce  all  the  same  effects,  by  raising  debate  after 
debate  upon  every  description  of  personal  question,  and  every 
miscellaneous  matter  they  could  drag  in,  so  as  to  prevent  any 
progress  being  made  in  the  public  bnsiness;  and  in  this  they 
have  completely  succeeded,  for  never  was  there  more  noise 
and  violence,  and  less  business  done,  than  in  this  session. 

In  anticipation  of  Peel's  resignation  there  are  three  parties 
all  animated  with  different  hopes  and  desires — the  Grey  party, 
the  Melbourne,  the  Stanley.  The  first  want  Lord  Grey  back 
with  all  the  moderate  Whigs,  throwing  over  the  Radicals, 
and  leaving  out  the  "Dilly  "  (as  Stanley's  party  is  derisively 
called) ;  in  fact,  Lord  Grey  would  only  come  back  to  carry 
the  Irish  question,  which  Stanley  will  be  no  party  to.  The 
second  want  Melbourne  and  all  his  kit  back  again,  to  go  on 
with  all  the  strength  that  the  united  force  of  Whigs  and 
Radicals  amounts  to.  The  third,  expecting  that  Lord  Grey 
will  decline  to  return  without  Stanley,  desire  that  the  Radical 
Whigs  should  attempt  it,  with  (as  they  think)  the  certainty 
of  failing,  and  then,  that  the  urgency  of  the  case  may  bring 
about  a  coalition  between  Lord  Grey,  Peel,  and  Stanley. 
Such  a  coalition  would  be  very  desirable  in  many  respects, 
but  I  much  doubt  Peel's  ever  consenting  to  take  office  wide* 


1835.]  PEEL'S  RESIGNATION  DOUBTFUL.  373 

Lord  Grey  (though  with  an  equality  of  authority  and  influence 
in  the  Government),  and  to  lead  a  party  from  which  all  his 
old  friends,  and  those  who  look  up  to  him  with  imbounded 
devotion,  must  necessarily  be  excluded,  and  to  give  up  all 
pretensions  to  ascendency  and  domination  in  the  Cabinet. 

3[<irch  2Sth. — It  appears  now  very  doubtful  whether  Peel 
will  resign  after  a  defeat  on  Monday;  and  I  am  disposed  to 
believe  that  it  is  not  his  intention;  indeed,  I  never  could 
understand  why  he  should.  He  has  over  and  over  again  de- 
clared that  whenever  the  Opposition  would  bring  forward  a 
direct  motion  against  him,  he  should  be  prepared  to  resign, 
but  not  till  then.  Still,  I  do  not  see  how  he  can  go  on,  and 
am  much  inclined  to  think  he  ought  not.  Weak  as  he  is,  at  the 
mercy  of  this  furious  and  reckless  Opposition,  Government 
suffers  in  his  hands;  the  Crown  and  all  Executive  authority  suf- 
fer. Every  Government,  to  be  useful  and  respectable,  should 
have  the  power  of  carrying  its  measures  in  its  own  way  through 
Parliament;  but  Peel  cannot  do  this,  and  instead  of  quashing 
any  mischievous  or  untimely  motion,  he  is  compelled  to  sub- 
mit to  one  defeat  after  another  upon  matters  which  would 
never  have  been  stirred  (or  certainly  not  successfully)  with 
the  late  Government,  or  with  any  which  possessed  the  con- 
fidence of  the  House  of  Commons.  It  was  expected  that 
Hume  would  persist  in  his  motion  for  referring  the  Army 
estimates  to  a  committee,  and  that  the  Whigs  would  support 
him ;  but  when  it  came  to  the  point,  at  the  suggestion  of 
John  Russell  and  Stanley,  he  very  sulkily  withdrew  it ;  but 
the  night  before  Government  was  beaten  on  two  divisions,  one 
about  the  Leicester  election,  upon  which  all  the  lawyers  in 
the  House  were  unanimous.  But  these  opinions  had  no  effect 
upon  the  Radical  majority,  and  they  voted  an  address  to  the 
Crown  to  confer  a  charter  upon  the  London  University,  Lord 
John  Russell  supporting  it,  although  this  question  had  been 
argued  before  the  Privy  Council,  which  had  still  to  report 
upon  it ;  and  I  believe  that  the  general  opinion  of  the  Lords 
was  against  conferring  the  charter  in  the  present  circum- 
stances of  the  university.  Certainly,  there  was  no  discussion 
in  Council  after  the  arguments  were  closed,  but  I  gathered 
that  the  impression  was  unfavorable  to  the  grunt  of  the  char- 
ter. The  House  of  Commons  knows  nothing  of  the  argument, 
and  rejected  Goulburn's  amendment  to  have  ths  proceedings 
before  the  Privy  Council  laid  upon  the  table,  voting  the  ad- 
dress merely  because  Government  opposed  it. 


374  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXVII. 

March  2Qth. — A  meeting  yesterday  of  Tories  at  Bridge- 
water  House  for  the  purpose  of  securing  a  better  attendance. 
Twenty-nine  Moderates  met  at  the  "  King's  Head,"  passen- 
gers in  the  "Dilly;"1  but  of  these,  nine  mean  to  vote  with 
John  Russell,  and  one  stays  away;  also,  two  or  three  others 
vote  against  Stanley :  queer  partisans  and  soi-disant  follow- 
ers, who  oppose  him  on  his  own  vital  question.  Peel  con- 
certed with  Stanley  in  the  House  on  Friday,  that  the  resolu- 
tion should  be  met  with  a  negative.  Wharncliffe  was  here 
to-day,  loud  in  his  praises  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  and 
delighted  with  the  Cabinet  of  which  he  is  a  member,  jam 
morituri  as  they  are.2  He  owned  that  they  could  not  prob- 
ably go  on,  but  that  they  would  not  give  in  till  they  could 
show  their  friends  that  they  had  done  all  that  men  could  or 
ought  to  do;  so  that  they  are  resigned  to  their  fate,  and  only 
studying  in  what  attitude  they  shall  meet  it. 

March  31st. — It  is  universally  believed  that  Government 
will  go  out  after  this  debate.  I  think  it  very  doubtful,  but 
the  sooner  they  now  go  the  better ;  they  are  well  aware  they 
must  retire,  and  the  question  is,  whether  they  shall  do  so  im- 
mediately or  wait  till  they  have  passed  the  Mutiny  Bill.  If 
the  House  of  Commons  refused  to  pass  the  Mutiny  Bill,  I 
think  they  would  dissolve  again.  The  King  is  in  a  dreadful 
state  of  mind,  as  well  he  may  be ;  however,  it  is  all  his  own 
doing ;  he  had  the  courage,  or  rather  rashness,  to  dismiss  his 
late  Ministers,  but  I  fear  he  has  none  of  the  cool  and  reflect- 
ing resolution  and  calm  moral  courage,  which  are  necessary 
for  this  crisis;  he  will  again  submit  to  whatever  is  dictated  to 
him. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  perplexity  of  the  Opposition  in- 
creases as  the  moment  of  their  triumph  approaches.  There 
were  260  people  at  Lord  John  Russell's  dinner,  all  prepared  to 
go  any  lengths,  and  twenty  more,  who  were  absent,  put  their 
names  down.  O'Connell,  who  declared  "it  was  the  most 
delightful  evening  he  ever  passed  in  his  life,"  publicly  ac- 
knowledged John  Russell  as  his  leader,  and  the  Radicals  were 
all  present  but  Hume.  Lord  Auckland  (who  called  upon  me 

1  [The  "Derby  Dilly"  was  the  nickname  given  to  Lord  Stanley's  section 
of  a  party,  from  a  joke  of  O'Connell's,  who  had  applied  to  it  the  well-known 
lines  : 

"  So  down  thv  hill,  romantic  Ashbourne.  glides 
The  Derby  Dilly,  carrying  six  iusides."  ] 

2  [Xord  Wharncliffe  was  Lord  Privy  Seal  in  Sir  Kobert  Peel's  first  Admin 
istration.] 


1835.]  SUICIDAL  POLICY   OF   THE   LORDS.  375 

about  a  house  he  is  thinking-  of  taking  through  my  mediation) 
said  he  would  not  do  any  thing  about  it  till  this  week  was 
over,  as  circumstances  might  render  it  unnecessary  for  him  to 
provide  himself  with  a  residence,  but  that  he  did  not  see  how 
any  thing  permanent  could  come  out  of  the  present  state  of 
things.  He  expected  Ministers  would  resign,  that  there  would 
be  audiences  and  negotiations,  and  that  at  last  they  would 
come  back  again ;  that  in  the  present  state  of  parties  he  saw 
not  how  any  other  Government  could  go  on  any  better  than 
this ;  and,  when  I  asked  him  about  John  Russell's  dinner,  he 
said  it  went  off  very  well,  but  the  composition  of  it  was  fright- 
ful (or  some  such  word,  but  not,  I  think,  quite  so  strong). 
John  Russell  and  Melbourne,  however,  are  satisfied  they  can 
go  on  with  the  Radical  assistance,  and  they  have  gone  too  far 
now  to  throw  these  allies  over;  they  must  and  will  make 
sacrifices  to  secure  them  for  their  own  protection,  and,  if  the 
House  of  Lords  is  swamped  in  the  first  instance,  they  will 
have  things  all  their  own  way. 

If  it  were  not  for  the  peril  to  all  that  is  worth  preserving, 
I  should  not  be  sorry  for  any  thing  that  happened  to  the  House 
of  Lords,  to  whose  bigoted  and  senseless  obstinacy  (upheld 
and  directed  I  am  sorry  to  say  by  the  Duke  and  Lyndhurst) 
the  present  miserable  condition  of  affairs  is  mainly  attribu- 
table. Their  rejection  of  the  Tithe  Bill  last  year  was  their 
crowning  exploit.  After  all  their  blunders  and  impotent 
struggles  against  a  stronger  power,  if  they  had  passed  that 
Bill,  or  restored  Stanley's  in  committee,  and  returned  it  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  I  believe  every  thing  might  have  been 
retrieved.  It  has  been  remarked,  and  certainly  with  truth, 
that  Peel  has  never  once  endeavored  to  excuse  the  House  of 
Lords  or  to-  vindicate  the  peers  from  the  taunts  and  reproaches 
which  have  been  repeatedly  thrown  out  against  them.  In 
point  of  fact,  I  believe  that  the  Lords  either  did  not  consult 
him,  or  did  not  care  for  his  opinion.  There  is  no  disguising 
that  the  Lords  liked  nothing  so  Avell  last  year  as  beating  the 
Government,  and  exhibiting  their  puny  and  spiteful  power ; 
now  they  are  mightily  shocked  and  disgusted  at  the  majority 
of  the  House  of  Commons  taking  their  revenge,  though  cer- 
tainly the  latter  do  it  with  much  more  rage  and  factious  vio- 
lence, but  with  them  it  is  a  system  of  tactics  for  a  specific  and 
attainable  object.  The  Lords  really  had  no  intelligible  object 
but  to  embarrass  a  Government  they  could  not  demolish,  and 
gratify  their  own  spite.  If  tho  most  violent  Radical  had  been 


376  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXVII. 

permitted  to  chalk  out  the  most  suicidal  course  for  the  House 
of  Lords  to  follow,  he  could  have  devised  nothing  more  ingen- 
ious and  well  contrived  than  what  they  have  actually  done, 
taking  care  to  keep  up  their  character  in  the  nation  for  intol- 
erance, and  inculcating  a  belief  in  their  adherence  to  the  most 
illiberal  maxims  of  foreign  and  domestic  policy,  instead  of 
devoting  all  their  energies  to  the  recovery  of  the  ground  they 
had  lost  in  popular  estimation,  and  strengthening  themselves 
for  the  contest  which  anybody  might  have  seen  was  not  very 
remote. 

April  3d. — They  divided  at  I  know  not  what  hour  this 
morning — 321  to  289, *  a  smaller  majority  than  I  was  led  to 
expect  when  I  heard  that  18  or  19  of  Stanley's  (so-called) 
party  meant  to  go  against  him.  Anybody  who  records  from 
dav  to  day  the  shifting  appearances  of  the  political  sky  must 
constantly  recant  one  day  the  opinion  and  expectation  of  the 
preceding.  Stanley's  speech  the  night  before  last  may  very 
likely  make  an  important  difference  in  the  result  of  this  extraor- 
dinary contest,  for  he  has,  as  it  seems  to  me,  put  a  final  end 
to  any  possibility  of  junction  with  the  great  body  of  the 
Whigs  now  arrayed  under  John  Russell ;  he  attacked  Lord 
John  himself — his  Whig  and  Radical  alliance  and  the  incon- 
sistency of  his  present  conduct — with  the  utmost  vehemence 
and  scornful  reprobation,  and  he  poured  forth  a  torrent  of  sar- 
casm and  ridicule  upon  the  prospective  Government  that  lie 
concludes  they  meditate.  This  is  so  conclusive  that  it  paves 
the  way  to  his  junction  with  Peel,  or  if  the  latter  goes  out  and 
John  Russell  does  come  in,  it  is  clear  that  he  will  have  both 
Peel  and  Stanley  in  opposition  to  him,  against  whom  in  the 
nearly  balanced  state  of  parties  he  could  not  struggle  on  for  a 
month.  He  was  miserably  feeble  in  this  debate  (in  his  open- 
ing speech),  and  though  he  may  just  do  to  lead  an  Opposition 
which  wants  no  leading,  and  merely  sticks  him  iip  as  a  nomi- 
nal chief,  he  could  no  more  lead  a  Government  in  the  House 
of  Commons  than  he  could  command  an  army  in  the  field. 
[So  much  for  my  prediction.  Stanley's  followers  dropped  off 
and  left  him  alone,  the  Government  had  no  difficulty,  and  John 

1  [On  the  30th  of  March  Lord  John  Kussell  moved  the  resolution  which  Was 
carried  by  this  division;  the  terras  of  it  were,  "  That  this  House  resolve  itself 
into  a  committee  of  the  whole  House,  in  order  to  consider  the  present  state  of 
the  Church  Establishment  in  Ireland,  with  the  view  of  applying  any  surplus  of 
the  revenues  not  required  for  the  spiritual  care  of  its  members  to'the  general 
education  of  all  classes  of  the  people,  without  distinction  of  religious  persua- 
sion."] 


1835.]  THE   IRISH   CHURCH   QUESTION.  377 

Russell  proved  a  very  good  leader. — January,  1837.]  What- 
ever may  be  the  fate  of  Government  for  the  present,  I  believe 
it  to  be  impossible  that  any  thing  can  prevent  Peel's  speedy 
return  to  office ;  he  has  raised  his  reputation  to  such  a  height 
during  this  session,  he  has  established  such  a  conviction  of  his 
great  capacity  and  of  his  liberal,  enlarged,  and  at  the  same 
time  safe  views  and  opinions,  that  even  the  Radicals,  such  as 
Hume,  join  in  the  general  chorus  of  admiration  which  is  raised 
to  his  merit ;  he  stands  so  proudly  eminent,  and  there  is  such 
a  general  lack  of  talent,  that  he  must  be  recalled  by  the  voice 
of  the  nation  and  by  the  universal  admission  that  he  is  indis- 
pensable to  the  country. 

I  am  much  inclined  to  think  that  this  debate  on  the 
Irish  Church  question  will  eventually  damage  the  Whigs 
not  a  little.  Their  speeches  this  year  might  all  have  been 
answered  by  their  speeches  last  year  on  the  same  subject,  and 
nothing  can  be  so  glaring  as  their  inconsistency  and  the 
factiousness  of  their  motives.  The  question  is  not  a  popular 
one  in  the  country,  where  nothing  like  favor  to  the  Catholics 
of  Ireland  or  their  religion  is  agreeable  to  the  mass.  The 
arguments  in  the  debate  have  been  triumphantly  in  favor 
of  the  Government  upon  the  resolution  as  contradistinguished 
from  the  principle ;  for  though  I  am  decidedly  favorable  to 
the  principle,  and  never  had  a  doubt  that  it  is  preposterous 
to  contend  that  if  there  is  a  reform  of  the  Church,  and  there 
turns  out  to  be  a  surplus,  such  surplus  should  not  be  dealt 
with  as  Parliament  in  its  wisdom  shall  deem  best  for  the 
general  interests,  under  the  actual  circumstances  of  the 
country,  at  the  time  the  appropriation  takes  place;  still  it 
is  perfectly  consistent  with  that  opinion  to  refuse  to  vote  for 
the  appropriation  of  the  surplus  which  may  never  exist  at 
all,  or  only  exist  at  some  distant  period,  when  other  circum- 
stances may  render  the  proposed  appropriation  altogether  in- 
expedient. 

In  the  afternoon. — Peel's  speech  was  not  so  good  as  usual ; 
it  was  labored,  and  some  say  tame.  In  the  morning  I  met 
him  and  walked  with  him;  he  seemed  in  very  good  spirits, 
talked  of  the  thing  as  over,  said  he  could  not  endure  any 
meddling  with  the  Tithe  Bill,  that  he  considered  great  good 
had  been  done  by  the  dissolution,  which  had  created  a  party 
strong  enough  to  obstruct  any  violent  measures  on  the  part 
of  their  opponents,  said  he  understood  they  had  sent  for 
Lord  Spencer,  did  not  believe  Lord  Grey  would  have  any 


378  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVJI. 

concern  with  it.  I  said  that  it  was  clear  after  Stanley's 
speech  that  he  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  Whigs. 
He  said  he  conceived  so,  but  that  it  was  very  odd  that  Lord 
John  Russell  did  not  see  it  in  that  light,  and  had  said  that 
Graham  could  not  join  them,  but  he  did  not  see  why  Stan- 
ley might  not.  I  told  Peel  that  in  my  opinion  the  best 
thing  that  had  been  done  was  the  proof  that  he  had  been 
enabled  to  exhibit  that  he  was  indispensable  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  country,  and  that  if  he  could  infuse  some 
firmness  and  courage  to  the  King,  and  persuade  his  Majesty 
stoutly  to  resist  any  requisition  to  swamp  the  House  of  Lords, 
and  rather  to  appeal  to  the  country  than  consent  to  it,  in  a 
very  short  space  of  time  he  must  come  back.  I  asked  him  if 
he  thought  the  King  was  capable  of  any  such  firmness.  He 
said  he  thought  he  was,  that  he  was  in  a  miserable  state  of 
mind  at  the  prospect  before  him,  and  all  the  more  so  from 
feeling  how  much  there  was  in  it  which  fell  personally  upon 
himself.  In  the  mean  time  it  does  not  seem  that  the  Ministers 
have  come  to  any  positive  resolution,  or  even  conviction,  as  to 
the  moment  of  their  retirement,  nor  as  to  its  absolute,  un- 
avoidable necessity.  Peel  evidently  considers  the  contest  at  an 
end.  Lord  Rosslyn  this  morning  thought  he  would  resign  im- 
mediately; the  Duke,  on  the  other  hand,  appears  by  no  means 
so  certain  that  the  Tithe  Bill  will  be  mutilated,  and  that  they 
shall  be  compelled  to  go  out  at  all.  Stanley  and  Graham  are 
angry  that  they  don't  resign  directly  ;  the}'  think  Peel  would 
retire  more  brilliantly  at  once  than  by  waiting  for  more  defeats. 
They  forget  that  he  is  bound  to  satisfy  his  own  party.  Stan- 
ley, with  that  levity  which  distinguishes  all  his  conduct,  talks 
of  him  as  of  "a  hunted  fox,  who,  instead  of  dying  gallantly 
before  the  hounds  in  the  open,  skulks  along  the  hedge-rows, 
and  at  last  turns  up  his  legs  in  a  ditch."  This  he  said  to 
George  Bentinck,  who  told  it  to  me ;  it  is  not  the  way  that 
Lord  Stanley  ought  to  speak  of  Sir  Robert  Peel.  What  I  cer- 
tainly do  regret  is  that  he  condescended  repeatedly  to  entreat 
John  Russell  to  put  off  bringing  up  the  report  till  Monday, 
and  exposed  himself  to  a  refusal.  He  should  have  invit- 
ed the  decision  of  the  contest  rather  than  have  tried  to  pro- 
tract it. 

April  4:th. — I  told  Jonathan  Peel  last  night  that  Stanley 
and  Graham  blamed  Sir  Robert  for  not  resigning  at  once. 
He  said  that  Sir  Robert  would,  as  far  as  his  own  feelingg 
were  concerned,  have  preferred  resigning  long  ago,  but  that 


1835.]  UPROAIl   IN   THE   HOUSE   OF  COMMONS.  379' 

a  vast  number  of  his  supporters  were  furious  at  the  idea  of 
his  resigning  at  all,  and  wanted  him  to  persist  at  all  hazards, 
and  he  was  compelled  to  resign  only  upon  such  a  point  as 
might  enable  him  to  satisfy  them  that  he  had  abided  by  the 
pledge  which  he  gave  at  the  beginning  to  persevere  while 
perseverance  could  be  useful  or  honorable.  He  then  told 
me  (which  I  certainly  did  not  attach  the  slightest  credit  to ') 
that  he  should  not  be  at  all  surprised  if  his  brother  were 
now  to  retire  from  public  life.  Such  an  idea  in  some  mo- 
ment of  disgust  may  have  crossed  his  mind,  but  if  he  were 
to  do  so  in  the  vigor-  of  his  age  and  at  the  climax  of  his 
reputation,  it  would  be  the  most  extraordinary  retirement 
that  history  ever  recorded.  Men  of  the  most  splendid  talents 
have  often  shrunk  from  entering  public  life,  but  I  am  not 
aware  of  any  instance  of  a  man  who  had  attained  the  emi- 
nence and  the  fame  of  Peel  who  has  withdrawn  from  the 
theatre  of  his  glory  and  power  without  some  stronger  motive 
than  any  that  can  be  found  for  him.  . 

I  was  told  last  night  that  the  scene  of  noise  and  uproar 
which  the  House  of  Commons  now  exhibits  is  perfectly  dis- 
gusting. This  used  not  to  be  the  case  in  better,  or  at  least 
more  gentlemanlike,  times  ;  no  noises  were  permissible  but 
the  cheer  and  the  cough,  the  former  admitting  every  variety 
of  intonation  expressive  of  admiration,  approbation,  assent, 
denial,  surprise,  indignation,  menace,  sarcasm.  Now  all  the 
musical  skill  of  this  instrument  is  lost  and  drowned  in  shouts, 
hootings,  groans,  noises  the  most  discordant  that  the  human 
throat  can  emit,  sticks  and  feet  beating  against  the  floor. 
Sir  Hedworth  Williamson,  a  violent  Whig,  told  me  that  there 
were  a  set  of  fellows  on  his  side  of  the  House  whose  regular 
practice  it  was  to  make  this  uproar,  and  with  the  settled  de- 
sign to  bellow  Peel  down.  This  is  the  reformed  House  of 
Commons.  Peel  told  Lord  Ashley  the  other  day  that  he  did 
not  think  it  possible  for  the  same  man  to  be  Prime  Minister 
and  leader  in  the  House  of  Commons  (he  meant  to  be  First 
Lord  of  the  Treasury  and  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer),  that 
no  physical  strength  was  adequate  to  the  labor  of  both  em- 
ployments. He  may,  therefore,  hereafter  put  some  Peer  at 
the  head  of  the  Government,  but  it  is  equally  indispensable, 
as  it  seems, to  me,  that  the  real  substantial  power  should  be 
vested  in  the  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons,  especially 

1  A  great  fool  indeed  I  should  have  been  if  I  had. — 18S8. 


380  REIGN  OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVII. 

when  he  is  a  man  so  superior  as  Peel  must  always  be  to  any 
colleagues  he  may  be  associated  with. 

April  5th. — 1  understand  now  what  Jonathan  Peel  meant 
by  talking  of  the  possibility  of  his  brother's  retiring  from 
public  life.  He  is  no  doubt  thoroughly,  heartily  disgusted 
with  his  own  associates.  It  appears  that  they  (the  Tories, 
or  many  of  them)  are  indignant  at  his  declaration  the  other 
night  that  on  the  Tithe  Bill  being  altered  he  would  go 
out,  so  that  while  others  are  blaming  him  for  not  going  out 
at  once,  his  own  followers  are  enraged  that  he  will  not  set 
the  House  of  Commons  at  defiance  and  stick  to  his  post. 
It  is  very  evident  that  many  of  them  are  desirous  (if  Peel 
does  resign)  of  continuing  the  fight  under  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington, if  they  could  prevail  on  him  to  try  it,  and  to  dis- 
solve Parliament  and  get  up  a  "  No  Popery  "  cry.  They  say 
that  "the  country"  (by  which  they  mean  their  own  faction) 
looks  up  to  the  Duke,  and  that  Peel  has  really  no  interest 
there.  The  fact  is  that  they  cannot  forgive  him  for  his 
Liberal  principles  and  Liberal  measures,  and  probably  they 
never  believed  that  he  was  sincere  in  the  professions  he 
made,  or  that  he  really  intended  to  introduce  such  measures 
as  he  has  done.  They  feel  (not  without  reason)  that  they 
cannot  follow  him  in  the  broad  path  he  has  entered  upon 
without  abandoning  all  their  long-cherished  maxims  of  ex- 
clusion and  ascendency,  and  that  in  so  doing  they  would 
incur  much  odium  and  disgrace.  Peel  sees  and  knows  all 
this,  and  cannot  fail  to  perceive  that  he  is  not  the  Minister 
for  them  and  they  no  longer  the  party  for  him.  It  is  no  won- 
der that  he  is  anxious  to  break  up  this  unmanageable  force, 
and  he  probably  would  rather  trust  to  that  increasing  feeling 
and  opinion  about  himself,  which  is  so  apparent  among  all 
classes  of  politicians,  to  place  him  by-and-by  at  the  head  of 
a  party  formed  upon  Conservative  principles  and  embracing 
a  much  wider  circle  of  opinions.  Still  this  Tory  body,  obsti- 
nate and  bigoted  as  they  are,  have  no  other  chief,  and  can 
find  none,  and  it  is  essential  to  Peel  to  keep  them,  if  possible, 
under  his  influence  and  direction,  and  therefore  (I  believe 
very  reluctantly)  he  defers  his  resignation. 

April  6th. — Yesterday  Wharncliffe  came  here  ;  very  low 
indeed  ;  he  says  he  never  thought  they  were  safe,  though  he 
owns  that  he  was  surprised  and  disappointed  that  there  were 
no  defections — not  one — from  the  enemies'  ranks  when  these 
measures  were  brought  forward.  He  says  he  was  with  the 


PEEL   AND   THE   TORIES.  381 

King  the  other  evening,  and  asked  him  if  he  was  going  back 
to  Windsor.  His  Majesty  said  "  he  could  not  go  back,  that 
he  could  not  bear  being  there  ;  there  he  had  none  of  them 
(his  Ministers)  to  talk  to,  and  day  and  night  his  mind  was 
absorbed  in  public  affairs."  Poor  wretch  !  he  suffers  martyr- 
dom, and  has  more  to  suffer  yet,  for  I  expect  they  will  have 
no  mercy  on  him.  Yesterday  I  had  more  proofs  of  the  ani- 
mus of  the  Tories.  One  of  them,  a  foolish,  hot-brained 
fellow  certainly  (but  there  is  no  such  enormous  difference 
between  the  best  and  the  worst),  told  me  that  if  Peel  really 
did  go  out  upon  the  Tithe  Bill  he  would  abandon  his  party  ; 
that  he  ought  to  let  them  alter  the  Bill  as  they  pleased,  wait 
till  the  House  of  Commons  threw  it  out,  and  then  dissolve 
Parliament. 

April  ^th. — Each  day  elicits  some  new  proof  of  what  I 
have  written  above — the  totally  altered  feelings  and  expres- 
sions of  all  conditions  of  politicians  about  Sir  Robert  Peel. 
It  would  seem  as  if  his  friends  were  suddenly  converted  into 
his  enemies,  and  his  enemies  into  his  friends.  The  Tories 
still  cling  to  the  expectation  that  he  will  hold  on  to  office  ; 
they  say  that  if  he  goes  out  he  abandons  his  party,  abandons 
the  King.  They  call  to  mind  Pitt  in  1784.  "  Very  slippery," 
said  one  to  me  yesterday,  when  I  read  to  him  Peel's  answer 
to  the  City  address.  On  the  other  hand  Mulgrave  was  last 
night  enthusiastic  in  his  praise  ;  he  owned  that  he  had  done 
admirably — given  proof  of  his  perfect  sincerity,  and  acted  in 
accordance  with  all  his  declarations  and  professions.  "  I 
am,"  said  he,  "  astonished  ;  nothing  in  Peel's  past  political 
career  led  me  to  expect  that  he  would  have  done  so  admi- 
rably as  he  has.  He  has  raised  himself  immensely  in  my  opin- 
ion." Such  is  the  language  of  them  all,  swelling  a  choral 
note  of  praise  ;  and  then,  to  make  the  whole  thing  more 
ridiculous  (if  any  thing  so  serious  can  be  ridiculous),  the 
Tories,  who  abuse  him  lustily,  are  moving  heaven  and  earth 
to  retain  him,  by  violence  almost,  in  his  place  ;  while  the 
Whigs  and  Radicals,  who  laud  him  to  the  skies,  are  striv- 
ing with  might  and  main  to  turn  him  out.  In  a  state  of 
profound  tranquillity  these  Ministers  are  quietly  transacting 
business  with  a  perfect  consciousness  and  a  universal  under- 
standing that  their  Government  is  at  an  end,  and  the  Oppo- 
sition are  redoubling  their  blows  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  waiting  in  the  complete  certainty  of  returning  to  office, 
for  which  they  are  already  making  all  their  arrangements. 


382  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVII. 

The  parts  are  all  so  quietly  performed,  the  catastrophe  is  so 
clearly  before  everybody's  eyes  and  understanding,  that  it 
more  resembles  a  dramatic  representation  than  a  mighty 
event  in  real  life,  big  perhaps  with  incalculable  conse- 
quences. 

April  St/i. — There  was  a  majority  of  twenty-seven  lash 
night,  which  I  conclude  settles  the  business.1  There  was  to 
be  a  Cabinet  this  morning  at  eleven,  at  which  they  had 
resolved  to  agree  upon  their  resignations.  Wharncliffe  saw 
the  King  last  night.  He  is  very  composed  ;  they  think  they 
can  infuse  courage  and  firmness  into  him,  but  when  he  is  left 
to  himself,  I  doubt  him.  Nothing  can  be  imagined  more 
painful  on  both  sides  than  his  approaching  interview  with 
the  once  rejected  and  now  triumphant  Whigs.  Yesterday  I 
rode  with  Ellice  up  the  Park.  He  said,  "  Grey  will  do  any 
thing  they  wish  him  to  do,  but  I  think  he  had  better  have 
nothing  to  do  with  it."  He  talked  of  the  new  Government 
that  will  be  formed  as  having  no  difficulty  ;  that  they  might 
have  if  Peel  and  the  Tories  went  into  violent  opposition, 
which  he  is  convinced  Peel  will  not  do.  I  said  they  might 
go  on  till  the  Tithe  Bill  went  to  the  House  of  Lords,  when 
they  would  expunge  the  appropriation  clause.  He  said: 
"  They  won't  be  so  mad  ;  there  is  no  Church  of  Ireland  now, 
and  the  question  is  whether  there  shall  be  one,  for  without 
that  clause  no  Tithe  Bill  will  ever  pass." 

1  [The  Ministry  \ras  defeated  on  the  Irish  Tithe  Bill  on  the  3d  of  April, 
by  a  majority  of  33  in  a  House  of  611 ;  on  the  6th  of  April,  by  a  majority  of  25 
in  a  House  of  499  ;  and  on  the  7th  of  April,  by  a  majority  of  27  in  a  House  of 
643.] 


1835.]  THE   MINISTERS  RESIGN.  383 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

Lord  Grey  and  Sir  James  Graham  express  Conservative  Views— Opinions  of  Lord  Stanley 
— Lord  Grey  «eos  the  King1,  but  is  not  asked  to  resume  Office — Lord  Melbourne's  Sec- 
ond Administration — His  Moderation — A  Difficulty — Spring  Rice — A  Joyless  Victory — 
Exclusion  of  Brougham — The  New  Cabinet — Lord  John  Eussell  defeated  in  Devon- 
shire— Lord  Alvanley  and  O'Connell — Duel  with  Morgan  O'Connell — Lord  Wellesley 
resigns  the  Lord  Stewardship — The  Eliot  Convention— Swift  r*.  Kelly — The  Kembles 
— London  University  Charter  discussed  at  the  Privy  Council — Corporation  Reform — 
Formation  of  the  Conservative  Party — The  King's  Habits — Secretaryship  of  Jamaica — 
Lord  Melbourne's  Tithe  Bill — The  Pope  rejects  the  Recommendation  of  the  British 
Government— Relations  with  Rome — Carlists  and  Christinos  in  Spain — Walcheien — 
The  King's  Address  to  Sir  Charles  Grey — Stanley  and  Graham  cross  the  House— Fail- 
ure of  Stanley's  Tactics— Alava  and  tho  Duke  of  Cumberland — A  Sinecure  Placeman — 
Lord  Glenelg  and  the  King — Concert  at  Stafford  House — The  King's  Aversion  to  his 
Ministers  and  to  the  Speaker— Decision  on  the  Secretaryship  of  Jamaica — Archbishop 
AVhateley — Irish  Church  Bill— Payment  of  Catholic  Clergy — Peel  and  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell—Factious Conduct  of  Tory  Peers— The  King's  Violence— Debate  on  the  Corpora- 
tion Bill. 

April  9th. — Yesterday  the  Ministers  resigned.  Peel  an- 
aounced  it  to  the  House  of  Commons  in  a  short  but  admi- 
rable speech,  by  all  accounts,  exactly  suited  to  the  occasion 
and  to  his  principal  object — that  of  setting  himself  right  with 
his  own  supporters,  who  begin  to  acquiesce,  though  rather 
sulkily,  in  the  course  he  has  pursued.  Lord  Grey  is  to  be 
with  the  King  this  morning.  He  was  riding  quietly  in  the 
Park  yesterday  afternoon,  and  neither  knew  nor  cared  (appar- 
ently) whether  he  had  been  sent  for  or  not.  His  daughter 
told  me  (lor  I  rode  with  them  up  Constitution  Hill)  that  his 
family  could  not  wish  him  to  return  to  office,  but  would  not 
interfere.  She  then  talked,  much  to  my  surprise,  of  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  junction  between  him  and  Peel ;  she  owned  that 
Peel  had  done  wonders,  but  said  that  she  could  not  wish  for 
such  a  junction  now,  however  it  might  be  possible  and  desira- 
ble that  it  should  take  place  some  little  time  hence.  This 
shows  a  very  Conservative  spirit  and  a  marvelous  thaw  in  the 
rigidity  of  the  Grey  politics. 

In  the  morning  I  went  to  Graham  to  ask  him  to  advo- 
cate my  cause  in  the  Sinecure  Committee  and  defend  my 
interests  there.  After  talking  over  my  case  (about  which 
he  was  very  obliging  and  promised  his  zealous  assistance) 
we  discussed  general  politics  at  great  length.  It  is  very 
evident  that  he  and  Stanley  have  no  leaning  toward  the 
Whigs,  and  look  now  solely  to  a  junction  with  Peel  and  the 
construction  of  a  Liberal  and  Conservative  party  and  Govern- 
ment. He  talked  of  this,  and  of  the  mode  of  accomplishing 


384  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM  17.  [CHAP.  XXVIII, 

it,  with  as  much  zeal  and  fervor  as  if  he  had  been  a  member 
of  the  Cabinet  which  has  just  fallen,  and  I  think  his  opinions 
coincide  very  much  with  my  own.  He  wants  the  King  to  be 
well  endoctrine,  and  that  his  firmness  (if  he  has  any)  should 
be  directed  to  one  or  two  points,  and  his  mind  nob  puzzled 
with  complicated  instructions.  He  should  be  advised  never 
to  admit  O'Connell  to  any  office,  and  to  resist  a  creation  of 
Peers.  He  thinks,  if  his  Majesty  is  stout  on  these  points,  that 
things  will  come  round,  and  he  by  no  means  despairs  of  the 
feeling  and  animus  of  the  country.  I  told  him  the  Tories 
and  late  Government  people  still  contended  that  if  he  and 
Stanley  had  joined  the  thing  would  have  gone  on,  which  he 
vehemently  denied,  and  declared  that  they  could  not  have 
saved  Peel  and  should  have  entirely  compromised  themselves  ; 
he  talked  with  great  admiration  of  Peel,  and  of  the  reception 
he  had  met  with  from  him  in  the  interview  they  had  on  his  re- 
turn, which  he  said  was  cordial  and  obliging  to  the  greatest 
degree,  and  without  any  appearance  of  that  coldness  and  re- 
serve of  which  he  has  been  so  often  accused.  He  then  talked 
of  Stanley  with  great  openness — of  his  talents,  character,  and 
political  views.  I  told  him  that  Stanley  had  not  raised  him- 
self this  session,  that  he  had  given  much  offense  by  the  general 
levity  of  his  conduct,  and  especially  to  the  Tories  by  the  occa- 
sional flippancy  or  severity  of  his  attacks  upon  them,  that  as 
it  was  clear  that  any  Conservative  Government  must  depend 
upon  the  great  body  of  the  Tory  party  for  support,  it  was  im- 
provident in  him  to  make  himself  obnoxious  to  them,  and 
that  he  would  do  well  to  exert  his  influence  over  Stanley  for 
the  purpose  of  restraining  those  sallies  in  which  he  was  too 
apt  to  indulge,  and  showing  him  the  expediency  of  conciliating 
that  not  very  wise  but  still  powerful  body.  He  asked  in 
what  way  Stanley  had  offended.  I  told  him  generally  in  the 
sarcastic  or  reprobating  tone  he  had  used,  and  particularly 
in  his  personal  attack  on  the  Duke  for  holding  the  offices. 
He  owned  there  was  truth  in  this,  "  but  what  could  you  do  ? 
it  was  impossible  to  change  a  man's  character,  and  Stan- 
ley's was  very  peculiar.  With  great  talents,  extraordinary 
readiness  in  debate,  high  principles,  unblemished  honor,  he 
never  had  looked,  he  thought  he  never  would  look,  upon 
politics  and  political  life  with  the  seriousness  which  belonged 
to  the  subject ;  he  followed  politics  as  an  amusement,  as 
a  means  of  excitement,  as  another  would  gaining  or  any 
other  very  excitable  occupation ;  he  plunged  into  the  mtlec. 


1835.]  STANLEY  AND  PEEL.  335 

for  the  sake  of  the  sport  which  he  found  it  made  there, 
but  always  actuated  by  honorable  and  consistent  principles 
and  feelings,  .and  though  making  it  a  matter  of  diversion 
and  amusement,  never  sacrificing  any  thing  that  honor  or 
conscience  prescribed."  I  said  that  this  description  of  him 
(which  I  had  no  doubt  was  true)  only  proved  what  I  already 
thought — that,  with  all  his  talents,  he  never  would  be  a  great 
man.  He  said  he  always  must  be  very  considerable ;  his 
powers,  integrity,  birth,  and  fortune,  could  not  fail  to  raise 
him  to  eminence.  All  this  I  admitted — that  nothing  could 
prevent  his  being  very  considerable,  very  important,  as  a  pub- 
lic man — but  I  argued  that  one  who  was  animated  by  motives 
so  personal,  and  so  wanting  in  gravity,  to  whom  public  care 
was  a  subsidiary  and  not  a  primary  object,  never  could 

t  achieve  permanent  and  genuine  greatness.  He  said  that 
Stanley  had  a  great  admiration  for  Peel,  without  any  tincture 
of  jealousy,  and  that  he  was  quite  ready  to  serve  under  him, 
though  he  could  not  help  doubting  whether  it  would  be 
possible  for  two  such  men,  so  different  in  character,  to  go  on 
well  together  in  the  same  Cabinet.  I  told  him  that  Wharn- 
cliffe  had  told  me,  that  no  man  was  ever  more  easy  to  act  with, 
more  candid  and  conciliatory,  and  less  assuming,  than  Peel 
in  the  Cabinet,  and  Graham  said  that  Stanley  was  likewise 
perfect  as  a  colleague,  so  that  it  may  be  hoped  there  would 
not  be  any  such  incompatibility  if  they  were  to  come  together. 

•  I  was  with  him  two  hours  and  a  half,  and  we  discussed  very 
fully  all  political  contingencies  with  the  freedom  of  twenty 
years  ago,  when  we  were  great  friends. 

April  10th. — Nothing  decisive  yesterday.  Lord  Grey 
was  with  the  King  in  the  morning  ;  he  there  met  Lord  Mel- 
bourne, Lord  Holland,  Lord  John  Russell,  and  Lord  Lans- 
downe,  and  went  back  to  St.  James's.  It  was  said  in  the 
evening  that  Lord  Grey  was  to  assist  in  the  formation  of  the 
Government,  but  not  to  take  office  himself. 

April  11th. — The  intention  of  Lord  Grey  evidently  was 
to  avoid  office  if  he  could,  but  if  strongly  urged  by  the  King, 
and  his  feeling  appealed  to,  to  yield.  The  King,  however, 
did  not  urge  him  at  all,  probably  much  to  his  astonishment, 
but  assuming  apparently  that  he  would  under  no  circum- 
stances return  to  office,  consulted  him  as  to  the  course  he 
should  adopt.  All  my  information  as  to  what  has  hitherto 
taken  place  amounts  to  this  :  His  Majesty  has  been  in  a 
vcrv  composed  state  of  mind,  h?.s  received  the  Whig  leaders 
39 


386  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV  [Ciup.  XXVIII. 

in  a  way  that  has  given  them  complete  satisfaction,  and  as 
far  as  personal  intercourse  goes,  the  embarrassment  appears 
to  be  removed.  He  has  given  Melbourne  carte  blanche  to 
form  a  Government,  and  he  is  proceeding  in  the  task.  Not- 
withstanding the  good  face  which  the  King  contrives  to  put 
upon  the  matter  in  his  communications  with  his  hated  new- 
old  Ministers  and  masters,  he  is  really  very  miserable,  and 
the  Duchess  of  Gloucester,  to  whom  he  unbosoms  himself 
more  than  to  anybody,  told  Lady  Georgiana  Bathurst  that 
with  her  he  was  in  the  most  pitiable  state  of  distress,  con- 
stantly in  tears,  and  saying  that  "  he  felt  his  crown  tottering 
on  his  head." 

It  is  intended  to  leave  O'Connell  out  of  the  arrangement, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  conciliate  him  and  preserve  his 
support.  In  this  they  have  apparently  succeeded.  O'Con- 
nell "  has  behaved  admirably  well,"  and  the  difficulty  with 
regard  to  him  is  at  an  end.  Of  the  Radicals,  some  are  to  be 
included,  and  no  notice  taken  of  the  rest.  Brougham  is  to  be 
set  at  defiance  ;  his  fall  in  public  estimation,  his  manifold 
sins  against  his  own  colleagues,  and  his  loss  of  character,  all 
justify  them,  and  enable  them  (as  they  think)  to  do  so  with 
impunity.  Melbourne,  who,  when  Lamb  *  is  here,  is  greatly 
influenced  by  him,  is  strongly  against  any  Radical  measures 
or  Radical  colleagues,  and  has  no  thought  of  a  creation  of 
Peers  or  of  any  desperate  expedients,  and  he  is  not  at  all 
satisfied  with  the  resolution  which  John  carried,  and  which  • 
was  the  immediate  cause  of  Peel's  resignation,  being  fully 
alive  to  all  the  inconvenience  of  it. 

Just  now  Tavistock  was  here,  having  come  from  St. 
George's  Church,  where  he  went  to  assist  at  Lord  John 
Russell's  marriage,  and  as  the  ceremony  could  not  begin  for 
half  an  hour,  he  came  over  to  pass  the,  interval  with  me.3 
He  told  me  that  "  there  still  existed  one  difficulty,  one  only, 
which  I  should  not  think  of,  apparently  unimportant,  but 
which  circumstances  rendered  important,  and  if  this  was  got 
over,  the  Government  would  be  formed  and  go  on,  that  he 
thought  it  was  an  even  bet  whether  it  was  got  over  or  not. 
What  this  difficulty  is,  so  little  obvious,  but  so  important,  1 
do  not  guess  ;  but  in  such  affairs  one  difficulty  will  not  stand 

1  [Meaning  Sir  Frederick  Lamb,  his  brother,  usually  residing  abroad  in  the 
diplomatic  service.] 

2  [Lo.rd  John  Itussell  married,  in  April,  1835,  Theresa,  widow  of  Lord  Eib- 
blosdale.    Mr.  Grcville  lived  at  this  time  on  the  north  side  of  Hanover  Square.] 


1835.]  DIFFICULTY   OF  FORMING  A   GOVERNMENT.  387 

in  the  way  of  completing  an  arrangement,  the  consummation 
of  which  has  cost  such  incredible  exertions,  and  such  sacri- 
fices of  consistency  and  of  public  interests,  to  the  interests 
or  ambition  of  a  party. 

April  12th. — Nothing  settled  yesterday,  and  great  doubts 
if  any  thing  would  be.  Lord  John  was  married  in  the  morn- 
ing ;  he  returned  to  Kent  House  with  his  bride,  and  Mel- 
bourne was  to  have  sent  him  word  at  one  what  was  definitively 
settled;  he  waited  till  two,  when  no  news  arriving  from 
Melbourne,  he  went  off  to  Woburn.  He  was  at  that  time  by 
110  means  sanguine  as  to  the  arrangements  being  completed, 
and  talked  in  doubt  of  the  Foreign  Office,  to  which  he  is  to 
go.  However,  Melbourne,  was  to  be  with  the  King  this 
morning  to  announce  that  the  Ministry  would  or  would  not 
do.  Sefton  told  me  last  night  that  the  difficulty  proceeds 
from  Spring  Rice;  if  it  should  fail  (which  it  will  not,  I  expect) 
Peel  must  stay  in  and  take  in  the  Dilly,  who  would  not  then 
scruple  to  join  him.  The  Government  would  be  formed  upon 
the  principle  of  not  settling  this  eternal  Irish  Church  question, 
which  I  think  so  great  an  evil  that  it  is  on  the  whole  better 
that  Melbourne  should  form  a  Government  and  go  on  as  long 
as  he  can — that  is,  till  something  decisive  is  done  about  the 
Irish  Church.  I  met  the  whole  Dilly  at  dinner  yesterday  at 
Stafford  House,  and  when  I  told  Stanley  and  Graham  that  I 
understood  Spring  Rice  made  the  difficulty,  they  both  said 
that  it  must  be  what  they  called  "his  conundrum,"  which  I 
had  never  heard  of  before ;  but  it  means  his  determination  to 
apply  the  surplus  to  the  purposes  of  general  education,  but 
not  to  go  a  jot  further,  and  they  suppose  that  this  is  not  far 
enough  for  the  others,  and  hence  the  difficulty. 

April  13<A. — Nothing  positively  known  yesterday,  but 
that  the  thing  is  settled  in  some  way.  Clusterings  and  con- 
gregations of  Whigs  about  Brookes's,  audiences  with  the  King, 
anj  great  doubt  whether  Grev  took  office,  and  the  Foreign 
Office* 

April  14#A. — Yesterday  it  was  understood  that  every  thing 
was  settled,  but  after  all  it  was  only  the  night  before  last  that 
Melbourne  was  definitively  charged  with  the  formation  of  a 
(r)vernment.  The  difficulties  were  O'Connell  and  Spring 
Rice ;  the  former  was  got  over  by  his  waiving  all  claim 
to  employment  and  promising  his  gratuitous  support.  By 
what  underhand  management  or  persuasion,  and  what  secret 
understanding,  this  was  effected,  will  be  a  mystery  for  the 
present,  but  nobody  doubts  that  it  has  boen  accomplished  by 


388  EEIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [Cn.u-.  XXVIII. 

some  juggle.  Spring  Rice  wanted  tf)  wash  his  hands  of  the 
concern ;  he  did  not  think  it  promised  sufficient  stability,  and 
without  some  assurance  of  its  lasting  he  wished  to  decline 
taking  office.  They  would  not  hear  this,  and  represented  to 
him  that  he  was  indispensable,  and  it  ended  in  his  giving  way. 
It  certainly  would  have  been  very  unjustifiable  of  him,  after 
going  all  lengths  with  them,  to  hold  back  at  last,  but  it  shows 
the  opinion  of  the  best  men  among  them  of  the  rottenness  of 
the  concern.  Lord  Grey  declined  taking  office,  but  wrote  to 
say  that  the  Government  should  have  all  his  support,  and  that 
he  wished  Howick  to  be  included  in  it,  which  is  the  same 
thing  as  if  he  were  there  himself.  Nothing  was  settled  about 
the  cast  of  offices,  and  they  were  waiting  for  Lord  John's  ar- 
rival from  Woburn  to  discuss  the  matter.  Between  the  pre- 
tensions of  one  man,  the  reluctance  of  another,  and  the  hy- 
meneal occupation  of  the  leader,  the  matter  hobbled  on  very 
slowly.  I  certainly  never  remember  a  great  victory  for  which 
Te  Deum  was  chanted  with  so  faint  and  joyless  a  voice.  Peel 
looks  gayer  and  easier  than  "all  Brookes's  put  together,  and 
Lady  Holland  said,  "  Now  that  we  have  gained  our  object  I 
am  not  so  glad  as  I  thought  I  should  be,r'  and  that  1  take  to 
be  the  sentiment  of  them  all. 

lliddleswortli,  April  16th. — At  Newmarket  the  day  before 
yesterday,  and  came  here  to-day,  where  I  find  the  Duke  and 
Duchess  of  Cleveland  and  two  or  three  others.  I  know  noth- 
ing but  by  my  letters  from  London,  by  which  I  learn  that  noth- 
ing is  yet  settled,  but  they  go  on  negotiating  and  endeavor- 
ing to  arrange  their  rickety  concern.  Having  concluded 
their  bargain  with  O'Connell,  they  have  taken  fright  about 
Brougham,  and  degraded  as  he  is,  and  contemptuous  and 
confident  as  they  were  about  him,  they  are  endeavoring  to 
make  terms  with  him,  and  it  will  probably  end  in  his 
recovering  the  Great  Seal.  When  this  is  done  they  will 
have  consummated  their  disgrace.  Shiel  said,  "  The  diffi- 
culty is  how  to  deal  with  a  bully  and  a  buffoon,"  and  as 
they  have  succumbed  to  and  bargained  with  the  one,  now 
they  are  going  to  truckle  to  the  other ;  there  is  not  one  of 
them  who  has  scrupled  to  express  his  opinion  of  Brougham, 
but  let  us  see  if  he  really  does  come  in  or  much  indignation 
may  be  thrown  away.  The  general  opinion  (L  am  told)  is 
that  this  Ministry  will  last  a  very  short  time,  and  that  ulti- 
mately a  coalition  must  take  place  under  the  direction  and 
supremacy  of  Sir  Robert  Peel.  This  is  jumping  to  a  conclu- 
sion over  many  difficulties.  However,  nothing  can  be  more 


1835.]  THE  NEW  WHIG  CABINET.  389 

meagre  than  the  triumph  of  the  Whigs,  nor  more  humiliating 
than  their  position  ;  even  my  Whig-Radical  friends  write  me 
word  that  "  O'Connell  holds  the  destiny  of  the  Government 
in  his  hands,  and  is  acknowledged  to  be  the  greatest  man  go- 
ing." It  was  hardly  worth  while  (in  a  national  point  of  view, 
whatever  it  may  have  been  in  a  party  one)  to  turn  out  Sir 
Robert  Peel  in  order  to  produce  this  result. 

Buckenham,  April  29th. — At  Newmarket  all  last  week  ; 
here  since  Monday.  I  know  nothing  of  politics  but  from 
newspapers  and  my  letters;  racing  and  hawking  are  my 
present  occupations.  There  seems  to  be  an  impression  that 
the  present  Government  will  not  last  very  long ;  but,  as  the 
grounds  of  that  opinion  are  the  badness  of  its  composition,  I 
do  not  see  that  its  speedy  dissolution  is  so  certain ;  the  public 
seems  to  have  got  very  indifferent  as  to  who  governs  the 
country.  I  was  curious  to  hear  how  the  Council  went  off  at 
which  the  Ministers  took  their  seats,  and  how  the  King  com- 
ported himself.  He  seems  to  have  got  through  it  tolerably, 
though  it  must  have  been  a  bitter  ceremony  to  him.  He 
made  no  speeches,  and  took  no  particular  notice  of  anybody, 
except  Lord  Howick,  to  whom  he  was  very  civil,  on  account 
probably  of  his  father,  and  because  he  is  a  new  man.  The 
threatened  contests  of  most  of  them  ended  in  smoke.  Devon- 
shire and  Yorkshire  will,  however,  be  important  and  severe. 
Of  all  the  appointments  those  that  are  most  severely  criticised 
are  Mulgrave's  and  Morpeth's.  It  is  said  that  Charles  Kem- 
ble  and  Liston  might  as  well  have  been  sent,  as  the  former 
has  always  imitated  the  one,  and  the  latter  involuntarily  re- 
sembles the  other.  Mulgrave,  however  he  may  be  sneered  at, 
has  been  tried  and  found  capable,  and  I  think  he  will  do  very 
well ;  he  has  courage  and  firmness  and  no  want  of  ability. 
He  is,  besides,  hospitable,  generous,  courteous,  and  agreeable 
in  private  life.1 

1  [Lord  Melbourne's  second  Administration  was  composed  as  follows  : 
First  Lord  of  the  Treasury        .        .        .    Viscount  Melbourne. 
Lord  President  of  the  Council       .        .        Marquis  of  Lansdowne. 
First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty      .        .        .    Lord  Auckland. 
Lord  Privy  Seal     .        .        .        .        .        Viscount  Duncannon. 

Home  Secretary Lord  John  Eussell. 

Foreign  Secretary Viscount  Palmerston. 

Colonial  Secretary Lord  Glenelg. 

Board  of  Control -Sir  John  Cain  Hobhousc. 

Secretary  at  War Viscount  Howick. 

Board  of  Trade Mr.  Poulett  Thomson. 

Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer     .        .        .    Mr.  Spring  Eice. 

Irish  Secretary Viscount  Morpcth. 

The  Earl  of  Mul<?rave  was  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland. 
The  Great  Seal  was  put  in  commission. 


390  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

May  \st. — Morpeth  made  an  excellent  speech  on  intro- 
ducing his  Irish  Tithe  Bill,  and  has  raised  himself  consider- 
ably. Morpeth  is  (as  it  appears  to  me)  ill  selected  for  the 
difficult  post  he  occupies ;  he  has  very  fair  ability  of  a  shoAvy 
kind,  but  I  doubt  the  solidity  and  strength  of  his  material  for 
the  rough  work  which  is  allotted  to  him. 

The  last  day  of  Parliament  was  distinguished  by  a  worse 
attack  of  O'Connell  upon  Alvanley  for  what  he  had  said  the 
day  before  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Alvanley  has  sent  him  a 
message  through  Dawson  Darner,  demanding  an  apology  or 
satisfaction,  and  the  result  I  don't  yet  know.1 

London,  May  \lth. — Newmarket  and  gout  have  between 
them  produced  an  interval  of  unusual  length  in  my  scrib- 
blings,  though  I  am  not  aware  of  having  had  any  thing 
particularly  interesting  to  record.  We  had  Stanley  at  New- 
market the  second  week  as  well  as  the  first,  taking  a  lively 
interest  in  John  Russell's  defeat  in  Devonshire.  This  defeat 
was  a  great  mortification  to  his  party,  and  was  not  com- 
pensated by  the  easy  victory  which  Morpeth  obtained  in 
Yorkshire.  These  elections  and  the  affair  between  Alvanley 
and  O'Connell  have  been  the  chief  objects  of  attention  ;  all 
the  newspapers  are  full  of  details,  which  I  need  not  put 
down  here.  Alvanley  seems  to  have  behaved  with  great 
spirit  and  resolution.  There  was  a  meeting  at  De  Ros's 
house  of  De  Ros,  Darner,  Lord  Worcester,  and  Duncombe,  to 
consider  what  was  to  be  done  on  the  receipt  of  Morgan 
O'Connell's  letter,  and  whether  Alvanley  should  fight  him 
or  not.  Worcester  and  Duncombe  were  against  fighting, 
the  other  two  for  it.  Alvanley  at  once  said  that  the  boldest 
course  was  the  best,  and  he  would  go  out.  It  was  agreed 
that  no  time  should  be  lost,  so  Darner  was  dispatched  to 
Colonel  Hodges,  and  said  Alvanley  was  ready  to  meet 
Morgan  O'Connell.  "  The  next  morning,"  Hodges  suggested. 
"No,  immediately."  The  parties  joined  in  Arlington  Street 
and  went  off  in  two  hackney-coaches;  Duncombe,  Worcester, 
and  De  Ros,  with  Dr.  Hume,  in  a  third.  Only  Hume  went  on 
the  ground,  for  Darner  had  objected  to  the  presence  of  some 
Irish  friend  of  O'Connell's,  so  that  Alvanley's-  friends  could 
only  look  on  from  a  distance.  The  only  other  persons  who 

1  [O'Connell  had  called  Lord  Alvanley  a  "  bloated  buffoon."  and  as  usual 
took  refuge  in  his  vow  never  to  fight  another  duel.  Upon  this  his  son,  Morgan 
O'Connell.  offered  to  meet  Lord  Alvanley  in  lieu  of  his  father,  which  was  ac- 
cepted and  the  duel  took  place.] 


1835.]  LORD   ALVANLEY'S   DUEL.  391 

came  near  them  were  an  old  Irishwoman  and  a  Methodist 
parson,  the  latter  of  whom  exhorted  the  combatants  in  vain 
to  forego  their  sinful  purpose,  and  to  whom  Alvanley  replied, 
"  Pray,  sir,  go  and  mind  your  own  affairs,  for  I  have  enough 
to  do  now  to  think  of  mine."  "  Think  of  your  soul,"  he  said. 
"  Yes,"  said  Alvanley,  "  but  my  body  is  now  in  the  greatest 
da»  ger."  The  Irishwoman  would  come  and  see  the  lighting, 
aid  asked  for  some  money  for  her  attendance.  Darner 
seems  to  have  been  a  very  bad  second,  and  probably  lost  his 
head  ;  he  ought  not  to  have  consented  to  the  third  shots 
upon  any  account.  Alvanley  says  he  execrated  him  in  his 
heart  when  he  found  he  had  consented  to  it.  Hodges  acted 
like  a  ruffian,  and  had  any  thing  happened  he  would  have 
been  hanged.  It  is  impossible  to  know  whether  the  first 
shot  was  fired  by  mistake  or  not.  The  impression  on  the 
minds  of  Alvanley 's  friends  is  that  it  was  not,  but  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  believe  that  any  man  would  endeavor  to  take  such 
an  advantage.  However,  no  shot  ought  to  have  been  fired 
after  that.  The  affair  made  an  amazing  noise.  As  O'Connell 
had  threatened  to  mention  it  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
Darner  went  to  Peel  to  put  him  in  possession  of  all  the  cir- 
cumstances, but  he  said  that  he  was  sure  O'Connell  would 
not  venture  to  stir  the  matter  there. 

Lord  Wellesley's  resignation  of  the  White  Wand  has  set 
conjecture  afloat  as  to  his  motives,  and  it  is  asserted  on  one 
side,  but  denied  on  the  other,  that  disgust  at  O'Connell's 
predominance  is  the  reason,  following  disappointment  at  not 
having  been  himself  reinstated.  I  do  not  know  the  truth  of 
the  matter.  Lord  John  Russell  takes  his  seat  on  Monday,  after 
which  business  will  begin  again  in  earnest  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  There  is  an  impression  that  this  Government 
will  not  be  of  long  continuance,  and  that  the  Ministers  are 
themselves  aware  that  their  tenure  of  office  must  be  brief. 
They  will  at  all  events  get  through  this  session,  for  much 
remains  to  be  done  in  the  way  of  approximation  and  combi- 
nation between  different  sections  of  public  men  before  any 
satisfactory  arrangement  can  be  made  for  replacing  the 
present  Ministers.  If  it  was  not  for  the  Irish  question,  and 
the  apparent  impossibility  of  bringing  that  to  any  final 
adjustment,  I  should  not  despair  of  the  introduction  of  a 
better  state  of  feeling  and  the  mitigation  of  the  bitterness 
and  animosity  which  set  men  of  different  parties  so  irrecon- 
cilably against  each  other.  At  present  there  is  certainly  a 


302  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

great  calm  after  the  storm  which  raged  so  fiercely  a  little 
while  ago.  I  have  been  so  out  of  the  world  between  New- 
market and  the  gout  that  1  know  but  little  of  what  has  been 
passing,  and  merely  throw  in  this  brief  notice  to  keep  lip  the 
chain  of  my  observations  and  remarks. 

May  24£/t. — Came  from  Newmarket  on  Thursday  night. 
Melbourne  is  said  (by  his  friend's)  to  be  doing  very  well  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  but  the  discussiou  on  Friday  about 
Lord  Wellesley's  resignation  gave  him  great  annoyance. 
Lord  Wellesley  declined  to  say  why  he  had  resigned,  and 
merely  declared  it  was  not  on  account  of  Mulgrave's  proces- 
sion, but  he  did  not  contradict  any  one  of  the  assertions 
that  the  cause  was  disgust  at  O'Connell's  ascendency.  When 
Lord  Harrowby  said  that  "if  he  had  been  Mulgrave  he 
would  rather  have  been  torn  to  pieces  than  have  marched  in 
under  such  banners  as  were  displayed,"  Lord  Wellesley 
loudly  cheered  him.  Peel's  speech  at  the  dinner  the  other 
day  has  made  a  great  deal  of  noise,  for  he  is  supposed 
to  have  thrown  over  his  High  Tory  friends  very  completely 
in  it,  and  to  have  exhibited  a  determination  to  adapt  his 
opinions  and  conduct  to  the  spirit  of  the  times.  However, 
the  Tories  affect  to  be  satisfied,  laud  it  to  the  skies,  and 
distribute  it  through  the  country.  In  the  House  of  Com- 
mons up  to  this  time  nothing  has  been  done;  Peel  has  made 
over  his  Dissenters  Bill  to  the  Government,  who  will  probably 
do  nothing  with  it  this  session.  Nobody  expects  the  present 
Administration  to  last  long,  as  it  is  said,  not  even  themselves; 
but  nothing  is  prepared  for  the  formation  of  a  better  and  more 
durable  Cabinet. 

Lord  Eliot 1  and  Colonel  Gurwood  have  returned  from 
Spain,  satisfied  that  the  Carlist  party  cannot  be  put  down,  and 
having  had  a  conversation  with  Louis  Philippe,  the  substance 
of  which  appeared  in  the  Times,  and  very  correctly.  Great 
indignation  is  expressed  at  the  indiscretion  which  let  this  out, 
and  it  is  understood  that  Gurwood  has  been  chattering  about 
what  passed  in  all  directions.  The  King  of  France,  it  is  clear, 
will  not  interfere,  and  so  they  must  fight  it  out.  Spanish  stock 

1  [Lord  Eliot  (afterward  Earl  of  St.  Germans)  had  teen  sent  to  Spain  by  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  in  March,  1835,  to  endeavor  to  mitigate  the  atrocities 
which  at  that  time  disgraced  the  leaders  on  both  sides  in  the  civil  contest  rag- 
ing in  Spain.  He  was  eminently  successful  in  his  mission,  and  a  Convention 
(commonly  known  as  the  Convention  of  Bergara)  was  signed  under  his  Lord- 
ship's mediation  at  Logrono  on  the  27th  of  April,  1835.  A  narrative  of  thia 
mission  was  printed  by  Lord  St.  Germans  in  1871.] 


1835.]  SWIFT   AND  KELLY  S  CAS3.  393 

fell  15  per  cent,  in  one  or  two  days.  The  King  is  in  such  a 
state  of  dudgeon  that  he  will  not  give  any  dinners  to  any- 
body. 

Yesterday  Swift  and  Kelly's  1  case  came  on  before  the 
Privy  Council.  It  was  to  have  been  heard  the  Monday  before, 
when  it  would  have  been  argued  and  decided,  because  every 
day  in  the  week  was  disposable  for  the  purpose,  but  Brough- 
am thought  fit  to  interfere.  He  insisted  upon  being  there 
to  hear  it,  and  compelled  Lord  Lonsdowne  to  put  off  the 
hearing  till  Saturday,  to  the  extraordinary  inconvenience 
of  all  parties.  On  Sunday  the  court  met,  but  no  Brougham. 
They  began,  and  in  about  two  hours  he  made  his  appearance, 
read  his  letters,  wrote  notes,  corrected  some  paper  (for  the 
press,  as  I  could  see),  and  now  and  then  attended  to  the 
cause,  making  flippant  observations,  much  to  the  terror  of 
Jervaise — Miss  Kelly's  uncle — for  all  his  interruptions  ap- 
peared to  be  directed  adversely  to  them.  I  told  Mr.  Jervaise 
lie  need  not  pay  any  attention  to  what  Brougham  said.  As 
he  came  late,  so  he  went  away  early,  breaking  up  the  court 
at  half-past  three,  and  as  other  engagements  occupied  the 
Judges  the  rest  of  the  week,  it  was  put  off  till  the  18th  of 
June. 

May  30th. — On  Wednesday  last  went  to  Charles  Kemble's 
in  the  evening;  singing  and  playing;  Mrs.  Arkwright,  Miss 
Strutt,  old  Liverati  (horrible  squabbling),  and  Miss  Adelaide 
Kemble.  The  father  and  mother  both  occupied  with  their 
daughter's  book,  which  Kemble  told  me  he  had  "  never  read 
till  it  appeared  in  print,  and  was  full  of  sublime  things  and 
vulgarities,"  and  the  mother  "  was  divided  between  admira- 
tion and  disgust,  threw  it  down  six  times,  and  as  often  picked 
it  up." 

Thursday  night. — To  Horace  Twiss's  what  he  called  "a 
Judy  pnrty  " — a  supper  and  jollification,  where  all  were  ex- 
pected to  contribute  to  the  amusement  of  the  company  who 
possessed  wherewithal.  The  contributors  were  Twiss  himself, 
Mrs.  Arkwright,  Miss  Cooke,  Dance,  Miss  Dance,  Planch6, 
Mrs.  Blood,  Mrs.  Groom,  Theodore  Hook,  Billy  something, 
who  imitated  Cooper  and  Ward.  I  staid  till  two,  and  they 


and  their  adventures  aro  related  in  a  former  part  oftheso  Journals,  vol.  i.,  p. 
138.] 


394  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

went  on  till  three.  It  was  sufficiently  amusing  altogether, 
though  noisy  and  vulgar;  company  very  miscellaneous,  but 
everybody  ready  to  amuse  and  be  amused. 

Friday. — The  Committee  of  Council  met  on  the  matter  of 
the  London  University  ;  Brougham  of  course  the  great  per- 
former ;  the  same  persons  were  summoned  who  had  attended 
before,  but  great  changes  had  since  taken  place,  which  made 
the  assembly  curious.  There  were  Melbourne,  Lord  Lans- 
downe  and  certain  of  his  colleagues,  Brougham  and  Lyndhurst 
— both  ex-Chancellors  sines  the  last  meeting — Richmond, 
Ripon,  Stanley  and  Graham,  the  Dilly  complete,  and  Lord 
Grey.  When  they  came  to  discuss  the  matter  nobody  seemed 
disposed  to  move  ;  at  last  Brougham  proposed  a  resolution 
"that  the  King  should  be  advised  to  grant  a  charter  making 
the  petitioners  a  University,  the  regulations  and  restrictions 
to  be  determined  hereafter."  The  Bishop  of  London  objected 
on  behalf  of  King's  College  to  any  advantages  being  conferred 
on  the  London  University  which  would  place  the  latter  insti- 
tution in  a  better  condition  than  the  former.  After  much 
tedious  discussion  the  words  "  university,"  etc.,  were  omitted, 
and  the  resolution  moved  was  " to  grant  a  charter"  The 
Duke  of  Richmond  formally  opposed  it,  his  principal  objection 
being  to  the  insolvent  state  of  the  concern.  Brougham  sat  in 
contemptuous  silence  for  a  few  minutes  while  the  Duke  spoke, 
and  then  replied.  There  was  a  squabble  between  them,  and 
an  evident  inclination  on  the  part  of  the  majority  present  to 
refuse  the  charter,  but  the  address  of  the  Commons  with  the 
King's  answer  were  read,  which  presented  a  very  difficult  case 
to  act  upon.  The  King's  answer  amounted  very  nearly  to  an  en- 
gagement to  grant  a  charter ;  the  Privy  Council  was  bound  to  de- 
cide without  reference  to  the  address  and  answer,  and  the  bias 
there  was  to  advise  against  the  grant.  Brougham,  after  much 
ineffectual  discussion,  said  in  a  tone  of  sarcastic  contempt  that 
"  their  hesitation  and  their  scruples  were  ridiculous,  for  the 
House  of  Commons  would  step  in  and  cut  them  both  short 
and  settle  the  question."  This  is  doub'tless  true,  and  he  can 
effect  it  when  he  will ;  but  how  monstrous,  then,  was  the  vote  ! 
1'he  House  of  Commons  had  never  heard  a  tittle  of  the  evi- 
dence or  the  argument;  the  Council  had  heard  it  all,  and 
were  bound  to  report  upon  it,  when  the  House,  while  the 
judgment  of  the  Privy  Council  was  still  pending,  voted  an  ad- 
dress to  the  Crown  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  an  adjudica- 
tion of  the  matter  one  particular  way,  without  reference  to 


1835.]  LONDON   UNIVERSITY   CHARTER.  395 

the  proceedings  before  the  tribunal.  They  all  seemed  agreed 
that  if  it  was  expedient  to  grant  a  charter  it  required  much 
consideration  to  decide  under  what  restrictions  and  regula- 
tions it  should  be  conceded,  and  Lord  Grey  declared  that  if 
he  was  called  upon,  without  reference  to  any  proceedings  else- 
where, to  decide  upon  the  arguments  they  had  heard  at  the 
bar,  he  should  decide  against  giving  the  charter,  but  if  he 
were  called  upon  to  advise  the  Crown  what  under  all  the  cir- 
cumstances it  was  expedient  to  do,  his  advice  might  be  very 
different.  Graham  said  he  could  not  divest  his  mind  of  the 
knowledge  he  possessed  of  what  had  passed  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  he  thought  the  Government  ought  to  advise 
the  Crown  on  its  own  responsibility  what  course  it  was  expe- 
dient to  adopt.  After  wasting  an  hour  and  a  half  in  a  very 
fruitless  and  not  very  interesting  discussion  (everybody  look- 
ing bored  to  death  except  Brougham,  who  was  talking  all  the 
time)  the  Council  broke  up  without  doing  any  thing,  and 
agreed  to  meet  £gain  on  Friday  next.  Old  Eldon  was  very 
busy  and  eager  about  it,  and  had  all  the  papers  sent  to  him  ; 
he  could  not  attend,  being  wholly  disabled  by  the  gout.  Of 
course  the  charter  (at  least  a  charter)  will  be  given,  because 
the  House  of  Commons  in  the  plenitude  of  their  ignorance, 
but  of  their  power,  have  so  decided. 

June  142/i. — Taken  up  with  Epsom  since  I  last  wrote,  and 
indisposed  to  journalizing,  besides  having  nothing  to  say.  I 
did  not  attend  the  second  meeting  at  the  Privy  Council  on 
the  London  University  question.  Lord  Eldon  came  to  it,  and 
there  was  some  discussion,  but  without  any  violence ;  it  ended 
by  a  report  to  the  King,  requesting  he  would  dispense  with 
the  advice  of  the  Council ;  so  the  matter  remains  with  the 
Government.  It  is  clear  that  they  would  have  advised  against 
granting  the  charter  but  for  the  answer  which  the  King  made 
to  the  address  of  the  House  of  Commons,  which  was  in  fact  a 
promise  to  grant  it.  This  answer  was  the  work  of  Peel  and 
Goulburn,  and  I  can't  imagine  what  induced  them  to  put  such 
a  one  into  his  Majesty's  mouth,  when  they  might  have  so 
properly  made  him  say  that  he  had  referred  the  matter  to  the 
Privy  Council,  and  was  waiting  for  their  report. 

The  calm  and  repose  which  have  succeeded  to  the  storms 
of  the  early  part  of  the  session  are  really  wonderful ;  all 
parties  seem  disposed  to  lay  aside  their  arms  for  the  present, 
one  reason  of  which  is  that  parties  are  so  evenly  balanced 
that  neither  wishes  to  try  its  strength.  Then  the  line 


396  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  17.  [CHAP.  XXV11I. 

\vhich  Peel  is  taking  precludes   any  immediate    renewal    of 
hostilities.      The    measures   of    Government  are  confined  to 
one  or  two  questions,  of  which  the  Corporation  Reform  has 
alone  been  brought   forward.      Peel  made  a  very  able  and 
dexterous  speech  upon  John  Russell's  introduction  of   that 
measure,  in  which  he  exhibited  anew  his  great  superiority, 
and  at   once  declared  his  intention  of  admitting  the  whole 
principle  of  it,  reserving  to  himself  to  deal  as  he  thought  fit 
with  the  details.      It  has  been  asserted  on  both   sides  that 
the  Whigs  and  the  High  Tories  are  equally  disgusted  at  his 
speech,  the  former  for  cutting  the  ground  from  under  his  feet, 
the  latter  for  his  departure  from  good  old  High  Tory  princi- 
ples.   There  may  be  some  truth  in  this,  but  the  Tories  profess 
generally  to  be  satisfied  and  convinced,  and  to  be  quite  ready 
to  follow  him  in  the  liberal  course  on  which  he  has  entered;  so1 
much  so  that  it  is  now  said  there  is  no  longer  such  a  thing  as 
a  Tory.     Peel  clearly  does  not  intend  that  there  shall  be  (as 
far  as  he  is  concerned  as  their  leader)  a   Tory  party,  though 
of  course  there  must  be  a  Conservative  party,  the  great  force 
of  which  is  the  old  Tory  interest,  and  his  object  evidently  is 
to  establish  himself  in  the  good  opinion  of  the  country  and 
render  himself   indispensable — to   raise    a  party  out    of   all 
other  parties,  and  to  convert  the  new  elements  of  democratic 
power  into   an  instrument   of  his   own  elevation,  partly  by 
yielding  to  and  partly  by  guiding  and  restraining  its  desires 
and  opinions.     Neither  is  there  any  mystery  in  his  conduct; 
his  object  and  his  intentions  are  evident  to  all,  and  it  is  per- 
haps advantageous  that  he  has  nothing  to  conceal.     At  the 
same  time  he  plays  this  game  with  great  prudence  and  ability. 
It  is  not  his  interest  to  strike  great  blows,  but  constantly  to 
augment  the  reputation  and  extend  the    influence   he    has 
acquired,  and  this  he  does  visibly  and  sensibly.     There  seems 
to  be  a  universal  impression  that  nothing  can  keep  him  out 
of   office    long.      This   Government   may  probably   scramble 
through  the  session;  there  is  no  particular  question  on  which 
they  are  likely  to  be  overturned,  but  there  is  a  conviction  that 
any  Government  must  be  provisional  in  which  Peel  is  not  in- 
cluded, and  that  before  long  the  country  will  insist  upon  his 
return  to  power. 

June  Vdtli. — At  Stoke  for  the  Ascot  races.  Alvanley  was 
there  —  nobody  else  remarkable  ;  fine  weather  and  great 
luxury.  Riding  to  the  course  on  Wednesday,  I  overtook 
Adolphus  Fitzclarence  in  the  Park,  who  rode  with  me,  and 


1S35.]  THE  KING'S  HABITS.  397 

gave  me  an  account  of  his  father's  habits  and  present  state 
of  mind.     The  former  are  as  follows  :  He  sleeps  in  the  same 
room  with  the  Queen,  but  in  a  separate  bed  ;  at  a  quarter 
before  eight  every  morning  his  valet  de  chambre  knocks  at 
the  door,  and  at  ten  minutes  before  eight  exactly  he  gets  out 
of  bed,  puts  on  a  flannel  dressing-gown  and  trousers,  and 
walks  into  his   dressing-room.      Let  who  will   be  there,  ho 
never  takes  the  slightest  notice  of  them  till  he  emerges  from 
this  sanctury,  when,  like  the  malade  imaginaire,  he  accosts 
whoever  may  be  present  with  a  cheerful  aspect.    He  is  long  at 
his  ablutions,  and  takes  up  an  hour  and  a  half  in  dressing. 
At  half -past  nine  he  breakfasts  with  the  Queen,  the  ladies, 
and  any  of  his  family;  he  eats  a  couple  of  fingers  and  drinks 
a   dish   of    coffee.      After    breakfast    he   reads   the    Times 
and  Morning  Post,  commenting  aloud   on  what  he  reads 
in  very  plain  terms,   and   sometimes  they  hear   "  That's  a 
damned  lie,"  or  some  such  remark,  without  knowing  to  what 
it  applies.      After   breakfast  he  devotes   himself   with   Sir 
Herbert  Taylor  to  business  till  two,  when  he  lunches  (two 
cutlets  and  two  glasses  of  sherry);  then  he  goes  out  for  a 
drive  till  dinner-time  ;  at  dinner  he  drinks  a  bottle  of  sherry 
— no  other  wine — and  eats  moderately;  he  goes  to  bed  soon 
after  eleven.       He  is  in  dreadfully  low  spirits,  and  cannot 
rally  at  all;  the  only  interval  of  pleasure  which  he  has  lately 
had  was   during  the  Devonshire   election,  when  he  was  de- 
lighted at  John  Russell's  defeat.     He  abhors  all  his  Ministers, 
even  those  whom  he  used  rather  to  like  formerly,  but  hates 
Lord  John  the  most  of  all !    When  Adolphus  told  him  that  a, 
dinner  ought  to  be  given  for  the  Ascot  races  he  said,  "  You 
know  I  cannot  give  a  dinner  ;  I  cannot  give  any  dinners  with- 
out inviting  the  Ministers,  and  I  would  rather  see  the  Devil 
than  any  one  of  them  in  my  house  !"    I  asked  him  how  he  was 
witli  them  in  his  inevitable  official  relations.     He  said  that  he 
had  as  little  to  do  with  them  as  he  could,  and  bowed  them 
out  when  he  gave  any  of  them  audiences  as  fast  as  possible, 
lie  is  peculiarly  disgusted  with  Errol,  for  whom  he  has  done 
so  much,  and  who  has  behaved  so  ungratefully  to  him ;  but  it 
is  a  good  trait  of  him  that  he  said  "  he  hoped  the  world  would 
not  accuse  Errol  of  ingratitude."     He  did  not  invite  Errol  to 
the  Castle  even  for  the  Ascot  races,  and  has  seen  little  or 
nothing  of  him  since  the  change.     Adolphus  said  that  he  be- 
lieved he  was  saving  money.     He  has  £120,000  a  year,  of 
which  £40,000  goes  in  pensions;  the  rest  is  at  his  own  dis- 


398  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

posal.     He  gives  up  his  Hanoverian  revenue — about  £16,000 
a  year — to  the  Duke  of  Cambridge. 

June  21st, — Yesterday  I  dined  with  Lord  Ripon;  Lord 
Grey  and  Stanley  and  Graham  dined  there.  I  sat  next  to 
the  latter,  who  holds  nothing  but  Tory  language.  He  talked 
of  Stanley's  letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Hesketh,  and  of  the  great 
offense  it  has  given  the  Tories.  Graham  thought  it  indiscreet 
and  uncalled  for,  though  in  the  principles  (anti-clubbism  and 
anti-associations)  he  agreed.  Graham  is  very  full  of  the  ex- 
pedition to  Spain,1  and  expresses  much  alarm  at  the  idea  of 
an  army  being  formed  which  is  to  act  independently  of  the 
control  and  authority  of  the  Government,  to  be  composed  of 
Irish  Catholics,  supplied  by  O'Connell  (who,  he  says,  has  been 
to  Alava  and  offered  him  any  number  of  men)  and  commanded 
by  Evans,  who  is  a  Republican.  He  believes  that  Peel  enter- 
tains the  same  sentiments  of  aversion  and  alarm  that  he  does; 
but  he  said  that  when  he  attempted  to  draw  from  him  his 
opinion  the  other  night  he  could  not  succeed  ;  that  Stanley 
has  no  alarm  on  the  subject;  expects  that  on  Wednesday  next 
Peel  will  make  a  severe  attack  upon  the  Government  on  this 
matter  [but  this  fell  to  the  ground]. 

In  the  morning  yesterday  I  was  in  court  for  the  unfor- 
tunate case  of  Swift  and  Kelly,  about  which  I  cannot  help 
taking  an  interest  from  having  been  originally  concerned  in  it, 
and  because  I  think  there  has  been  great  villainy  somewhere. 
Some  of  the  circumstances  connected  with  this  appeal  are 
curious,  as  showing  the  accidents  on  which  the  issue  of  mat- 
ters of  vital  importance  to  the  parties  often  depend,  and  how 
the  mistakes  or  selfishness  of  individuals  concerned  may  in- 
fluence the  result,  and  in  a  way  they  little  expected  or  calcu- 
lated upon. 

June  27th. — I  am  again  tormented  to  death  with  the  Com- 
mittee on  West  India  places,  and  menaced  with  a  report  that 
will  be  fatal  to  my  case.2  Graham  has  been  very  obliging 
about  it,  and  attended  the  Committee  on  Thursday  to  see 
what  they  were  about  and  give  me  notice.  I  went  to  Lord 

1  [This  was  the  Spanish  Legion,  commanded  by  General  de  Lacy  Evans. 
License  was  given  under  the  Foreign  Enlistment  Act  for  British  subjects  to 
enter  the  service  of  Queen  Isabella.] 

3  [Mr.  Greville  held  the  sinecure  office  of  Secretary  of  the  Island  of  Jamaica, 
which  was  threatened  at  this  time  by  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
He  succeeded,  however,  in  retaining  it,  until  he  voluntarily  resigned  the  ap- 
pointment many  years  afterward.  His  salary  as  Clerk  of  the  Council  was  dimin- 
ished by  £500  a  year  as  long  as  he  held  the  two  offices.] 


1835.]  SWIFT  AND  KELLY'S  CASE.  399 

Melbourne  yesterday  and  stated  my  case  to  him,  invoking  his 
protection,  and  he  appeared  extremely  well  disposed  to  do 
what  he  could  for  me.  I  told  him  I  did  not  wish  him  to  pledge 
himself  till  he  had  seen  the  case  and  considered  it,  such  as 
I  had  laid  it  before  the  Committee;  and  then,  if  he  is  satis- 
fied that  I  stand  upon  tenable  grounds,  I  will  ask  him  to 
exert  his  influence  and  authority  in  my  behalf.  However, 
I  much  doubt  whether,  strive  and  struggle  as  I  may,  I  shall 
ever  escape  from  the  determination  of  this  morose  and  rigid 
millionaire  [Francis  Baring,  who  was  not,  however,  a  mill- 
ionaire or  any  thing  like  it,  either  in  prcesenti  or  in  futuro]  to 
strip  me  of  my  property ;  and  I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  its 
loss,  though  resolved  to  fight  while  I  have  a  leg  to  fight  upon. 

Yesterday  we  were  again  occupied  all  day  with  Swift  and 
Kelly,  which  to-day  will  be  brought  to  a  close.  The  conduct 
of  Brougham  on  this  trial  exceeds  all  imagination  and  belief. 
From  the  beginning  he  has  taken  a  one-sided  view  of  the 
case,  and  apparently  set  out  with  a  bias  which  has  continually 
increased,  till  he  has  become  altogether  identified,  and  in  a 
manner  passionately  identified,  with  the  appellant's  side ;  and 
he  exhibits  this  bias  by  one  continual  course  of  advocacy, 
battling  every  argument  and  every  point  with  the  respond- 
ent's counsel  with  a  virulence  and  an  intemperance  th^t 
are  so  disgusting  that  my  blood  boils  while  I  listen  to  him. 
But  his  conduct  in  all  other  respects  displays  the  most  extraor- 
dinary contrast  with  that  of  the  other  judges  who  sit  there ; 
they,  at  least,  listen  attentively  and  consecutively  to  the  whole 
case,  and  when  they  do  interrupt  it  is  for  the  purpose  of  ob- 
taining explanations  and  elucidations,  and  without  the  exhi- 
bition of  any  bias.  But  he  is  writing  letters,  reading  news- 
papers, cutting  jokes,  attending  only  by  fits  and  starts ;  then, 
when  something  smites  his  ear,  out  he  breaks,  and  with  a 
Miixture  of  sarcasm  and  ribaldry  and  insolence  he  argues  and 
battles  the  point,  whatever  it  may  be. 

Afternoon. — I  an>  just  come  from  the  court.  Lushington 
finished  his  speech  at  two,  and  when  Pemberton  was  about 
to  reply  Brougham  announced  that  he  must  go  away  to  the 
London  University,  where  he  was  to  distribute  prizes.  The  con- 
sequence was  that  the  reply  was  deferred  till  next  Wednes- 
day, and  the  parties  will  be  put  to  the  expense  of  £60 
more.  His  conduct  to-day  was  exactly  of  a  piece  with  that 
which  he  has  exhibited  throughout  the  trial.  With  all  the 
ingenuity  and  astuteness  of  which  he  is  master  he  has  attacked 


400  REIGN  OP  WILLIAM  IV.  [Ciup.  XXVIII. 

every  part  of  the  respondent's  case;  and,  to  do  him  justice, 
he  has  often  displayed  great  acuteness  and  expressed  himself 
with  admirable  force  and  precision ;  but  it  was  the  conduct 
of  an  advocate  and  not  of  a  judge,  and  a  much  better  advo- 
cate has  he  been  for  Swift  than  either  of  those  he  retained. 
(Pemberton,  however,  conducted  the  case  with  consummate 
skill  and  judgment.)  He  finished  by  declaring  that  as  far  as 
he  was  concerned  he  should  not  desiderate  a  reply,  except  on 
one  or  two  points  on  which  he  wished  to  hear  it.  After  the 
court  broke  up  Baron  Parke  came  into  my  room  and  asked 
my  opinion,  at  the  same  time  telling  me  his  own,  which  was 
as  decidedly  against  the  girl  as  Brougham's.  I  argued  the 
case  with  him,  especially  the  points  which  Lushington  failed 
to  enforce  as  strongly  as  I  think  he  might  have  done,  but  his 
mind  was  made  up.  Shadwell,  on  the  contrary,  leans  the 
other  way,  and  agreed  with  me  in  my  view  of  it.  It  is,  how- 
ever, very  clear  that  nothing  can  prevent  the  reversal  of  Sir 
John  Nichoirs  judgment ;  for  Erskine  will  very  likely  go  with 
Brougham  and  Parke,  and  if  he  does  not  Lord  Lansdowne 
undoubtedly  will;  but  if  I  were  to  attend  this  court  a  hun- 
dred years  I  should  never  forget  the  conduct  of  Brougham  on 
this  trial.  My  disgust  would  not  have  been  a  jot  less  had  he 
ospoused  the  same  side  that  I  do;  and  if  I  were  myself  en- 
gaged in  a  suit,  and  he  were  to  take  up  my  own  cause  in  such 
a  barefaced  and  outrageous  manner,  with  such  an  utter  con- 
tempt of  dignity  and  decency,  I  should  feel  the  utmost  shame 
at  such  partiality,  though  exerted  in  my  behalf. 

June  30th. — I  went  to  Melbourne  on  Sunday  and  carried 
him  my  case.1  He  told  me  he  had  already  desired  Spring 
Rice  to  speak  to  Baring  on  the  subject,  and  I  believe  he  will 
do  what  he  can;  but  these  great  people,  however  well  dis- 
posed, can  seldom  be  urged  into  sufficient  resolution  and  ac- 
tivity to  take  an  energetic  way  of  settling  the  matter,  and 
they  have  always  so  much  consideration  for  each  other  that 
Melbourne  will  probably,  with  all  his  good-nature,  feel  a  sort 
of  delicacy  to  his  subordinate  colleague  in  rescuing  me  from 
his  clutches.  Yesterday  I  went  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
and  gave  him  my  case  to  read,  requesting  him  to  exert  his 
influence  with  his  Tories,  and  get  them  to  attend  the  Com- 
mittee and  defend  me  there.  He  read  it,  approved,  and  prom- 
ised to  speak  to  both  Peel  and  Herries.  I  had  previously 
desired  George  Dawson  to  speak  to  Peel.  I  might  certainly, 
1  [Eclating  to  the  Secretaryship  of  Jamaica.] 


1S35.]        THE  POPE  AND  THE  BRITISH  GOVERNMENT.  401 

after  the  very  essential  services  I  rendered  Peel  and  his  Gov- 
ernment, go  with  some  confidence  to  Peel  or  any  of  them  and 
ask  for  their  aid  in  my  difficulty ;  but  it  is  not  wise  to  remind 
men  of  an  obligation ;  if  they  do  not  feel  it  without  being 
reminded  they  will  not  be  made  to  do  so  by  any  hint,  and  an 
accusation  of  ingratitude  will  be  implied,  which  will  cnly 
excite  their  resentment ;  if  they  are  sensible  of  the  obligation 
they  will  return  it  without  any  reminder. 

After  I  had  said  what  I  had  to  say  to  Melbourne  he  asked 
me  what  was  thought  of  the  Tithe  Bill.  I  told  him  it  was 
thought  a  very  outrageous  measure  by  the  Tories,  but  that  I 
thought  it  useless  and  that  it  did  not  go  far  enough.  "  I 
know  you  do,"  he  said,  "  but  such  as  it  is  it  will  very  likely 
overturn  the  Government."  He  then  talked  over  the  Irish, 
question,  and  owned  that  nothing  could  settle  it,  that  they 
might  perhaps  bolster  up  the  Irish  Church  a  little  longer  than 
the  other  party  could,  that  thev,  however,  could  not  do  more 
than  this  now,  and  it  was  only  doubtful  if  they  could  do  this. 
He  talked  the  language  of  reason,  and  with  a  just  sense  of  the 
insuperable  difficulties  which,  present  themselves  on  all  sides 
with  respect  to  this  question,  but  at  the  same  time  of  their 
eventual  (though  as  to  the  time  uncertain)  solution.  I  told 
him  that  I  had  long  been  of  opinion  that  the  only  practicable 
and  sound  course  was  to  open  a  negotiation  with  Rome,  and 
to  endeavor  to  deal  with  the  Catholics  in  Ireland  and  the  min- 
isters of  the  Catholic  religion  upon  the  same  plan  which  had 
been  mutatis  mutandis  adopted  universally  in  Germany  and 
almost  all  over  the  Continent,  and  that  there  was  nothing  the 
Church  of  Rome  desired  so  much  as  to  cultivate  a  good  under- 
standing with  us.  He  then  told  me  a  thing  that  surprised 
me,  and  which  seemed  to  be  at  variance  with  this  supposi- 
tion— that  an  application  had  been  made  to  the  Pope  very« 
lately  (through  Seymour),  expressive  of  the  particular  wish 
of  the  British  Government  that  he  would  not  appoint  M'Hale 
to  the  vacant  Catholic  bishopric,  anybody  but  him,  notwith- 
standing which  the  Pope  had  appointed  M'Hale ;  but  on  this 
occasion  the  Pope  made  a  shrewd  observation.  His  Holiness 
said  that  "  he  had  remarked  for  a  long  time  past  that  no  piece 
of  preferment  of  any  value  ever  fell  vacant  in  Ireland  that  he 
did  not  get  an  application  from  the  British  Government  ask- 
ing for  the  appointment."  Lord  Melbourne  supposed  he  was 
determined  to  show  that  he  had  the  power  of  refusing  and  of 
opposing  the  wishes  of  Government,  and  in  reply  to  my  qucs- 


£02  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

tion  he  admitted  that  the  Pope  had  generally  conferred  the 
appointment  according  to  the  wishes  of  Government.  Can 
any  thing  be  more  absurd  or  anomalous  than  such  relations  as 
these  ?  The  law  prohibits  any  intercourse  with  Rome,  and  the 
Government  whose  business  it  is  to  enforce  the  law  has  estab- 
lished a  regular  but  underhand  intercourse,  through  the  me- 
dium of  a  diplomatic  agent,  whose  character  cannot  be  avowed, 
and  the  Ministers  of  this  Protestant  kingdom  are  continually 
soliciting  the  Pope  to  confer  appointments,  the  validity,  even 
the  existence,  of  which  they  do  not  recognize,  while  the  Pope, 
who  is  the  object  of  our  orthodox  abhorrence  and  dread,  good- 
humoredly  complies  with  all,  or  nearly  all,  their  requests. 
These  are  the  national  and  legislative  follies  of  this  wise  and 
prosperous  people,  and  such  is  the  false  position  into  which 
we  are  drawn  by  a  long  course  of  detestable  policy — policy 
arising  at  first  out  of  circumstances,  and  eventually  adhered 
to  from  those  powerful  prejudices  which  struck  their  roots  so 
deep  into  the  soil  that  the  force  of  reason  and  philosophy  has 
not  yet  been  sufficient  to  tear  them  up.  Peel,  in  one  of  his 
speeches  on  Catholic  emancipation,  bade  the  House  of  Com- 
mons not  to  deceive  itself,  and  to  be  aware  that  if  that  Bill 
was  carried,  we  must  have  Episcopal  (or  Protestant)  England, 
Presbyterian  Scotland,  and  Catholic  Ireland.  He  prophesied 
well  and  truly  no  doubt,  and  to  that  consummation  affairs 
will  eventually  come,  as  they  ought  to  come,  though  not  with- 
out many  a  struggle,  through  many  a  year.  The  prophecy  of 
Peel  is  advancing  to  its  accomplishment,  but  he  has  either  for- 
gotten it  or  finds  it  convenient  to  forget  it. 

Yesterday  the  Duke  of  Wellington  talked  about  the  Span- 
ish war,  the  nature  of  which  he  described  very  well,  and  ex- 
pressed his  opinion  that  on  the  whole  the  Cliristinos  have  the 
%best  chance ;  he  said  Zumalacarreguy  was  an  able  man,  and 
that  his  death  must  have  a  very  important  influence  on  the 
result.  We  talked  of  Napier's  controversy  with  Perceval.1 
He  said  Napier  had  not  fairly  treated  Perceval's  character  in 
the  controversy,  said  he  had  never  read  a  syllable  of  the  book, 
in  order  to  keep  clear  of  discussions,  but  that  when  the  work 
was  completed,  and  all  controversies  were  silenced,  he  might 
probably  look  it  over,  and  if  he  discovered  any  errors  tell  the 
author  of  them.  He  said  that  no  doubt  the  army  had  been 
greatly  in  want  of  money,  but  that  this  was  not  the  fault  of 
1  [The  Duke  referred  to  Sir  William  Napier's  "  History  of  the  Peninsulai 


1835.]  THE   BANK   RESTRICTION.  403 

the  Government.  It  was  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  any 
advanta'ge  had  been  derived  (as  to  obtaining  funds)  from  the 
bank  restriction ;  certainly  the  raising  of  loans  was  facilitated 
by  it,  but  the  war  would  have  been  much  less  expensive  with- 
out it,  and  he  had  always  been  of  opinion  that  the  immediate 
cause  of  the  bank  restriction  was  the  Loyalty  Loan.  This  loan 
had  drained  the  bankers  and  individuals  of  ready  money,  and 
the  consequence  was  a  stagnation  in  commerce,  and  therefore 
in  circulation,  which  rendered  the  bank  restriction  necessary. 
He  then  talked  of  the  Walcheren  expedition,*and  said  that 
though  it  was  wretchedly  conducted  and  altogether  mis- 
managed, it  was  not  ill-planned,  and  if  they  had  gone  straight 
to  Antwerp  it  might  have  rendered  very  great  service  to  the 
general  cause,  and  have  put  Bonaparte  in  great  difficulties. 
I  had  always  fancied  that  he  had  disapproved  of  that  expedi- 
tion. 

July  1st. — This  morning  Pemberton  was  heard  in  reply  in 
Swift's  case,  and  after  a  short  discussion  the  court  came  to  a 
resolution  to  upset  Sir  John  Nicholl's  decision.  Brougham 
behaved  very  decently  to-day,  and  stated  fairly  enough  his 
opinion,  but  he  was  quite  clear,  and  so  was  Baron  Parke,  as 
to  the  judgment.  The  Vice-Chancellor  with  hesitation  ac- 
quiesced, and  Erskine  said  nothing ;  the  Lord  President  went 
with  them,  so  that  the  court  was  unanimous. 

From  thence  I  went  to  St.  James's  to  swear  in  Sir  Charles 
Grey  *  and  Charles  Fitzroy  Privy  Councilors,  when  we  had 
a  most  curious  burst  of  eloquence  from  his  Majesty.  This 
is  the  first  time  I  have  seen  him  and  his  present  Ministers 
together,  and  certainly  they  do  not  strike  me  as  exhibiting  any 
mutual  affection.  After  Sir  Charles  Grey  was  sworn  the  King 
said  to  him,  "  Stand  up,"  and  up  he  stood.  He  then  ad- 
dressed him  with  great  fluency  and  energy  nearly  in  these 
words :  "  Sir  Charles  Grey,  you  are  about  to  proceed  upon  one 
of  the  most  important  missions  which  ever  left  this  country, 
and,  from  your  judgment,  ability,  and  experience,  I  have  no 
doubt  that  you  will  acquit  yourself  to  my  entire  satisfaction ; 
I  desire  you,  however,  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  colony  to 
which  you  are  about  to  proceed  has  not,  like  other  British 

1  [Sir  Charles  Grey  luid  just  been  appointed  Governor  of  Jamaica.  He  had 
previously  filled  for  a  short  time  the  office  of  Chief-Justice  of  Bengal,  and  en- 
joyed at  this  time  a  considerable  reputation  in  society.  The  Minister  to  whom 
the  King  referred  in  his  concluding  observation  was  Lord  Glenolg,  as  will  be 
Been  presently.] 


i04  REIGN  CF  WILLiAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

colonies,  been  peopled  from  the  mother-country — that  it  is  not 
an  original  possession  of  the  Crown,  but  that  it  was  obtained 
by  the  sic  or  d.  You  will  take  care  to  assert  those  undoubted 
prerogatives  which  the  Crown  there  possesses,  and  which  I  am 
determined  to  enforce  and  maintain,  and  I  charge  you  by  the 
oath  which  you  have  just  taken  strenuously  to  assert  those 
prerogatives,  of  which  persons  who  ought  to  have  lev  own 
better  have  dared  even  in  my  presence  to  deny  the  existence" 
His  speech  was  something  longer  than  this,  but  the  last  words 
almost  precisely  the  same.  The  silence  was  profound,  and  I 
was  amused  at  the  astonishment  depicted  on  the  faces  of  the 
Ministers.  I  asked  Lord  Lansdowne  and  Lord  Holland  who 
it  was  that  he  alluded  to.  Neither  knew,  but  the  former  said 
he  thought  it  might  be  Ellice,  and  that  the  King  referred  to 
something  Ellice  had  said  to  him  when  he  was  Minister. 
Somebody  said  they  thought  it  was  Spring  Rice,  but  that 
could  not  be  when  Rice  was  sitting  at  the  table.  I  have  heard 
many  specimens  of  his  eloquence,  but  never  any  thing  like 
this.  After  this  he  had  to  give  Durham  an  audience  on  his 
embassy,  which  must  have  been  very  agreeable  to  him,  as  he 
hates  him  and  the  Duchess  of  Kent,  whose  "magnus  Apollo" 
Durham  is. 

July  3d. — The  night  before  last  Lord  Stanley  and  Graham 
quitted  their  neutral  seats  below  the  gangway,  and  established 
themselves  on  the  opposite  bench  below  Peel.  This  was 
considered  as  an  intimation  of  a  more  decided  hostility  to 
the  present  Government,  and  as  an  abandonment  of  the  neu- 
trality (if  such  it  can  be  called)  which  they  have  hitherto 
prqfessed.  Last  night  O'Connell  made  a  very  coarse  attack 
upon  Stanley  in  consequence  of  this  change,  which  lashed 
him  into  a  fur)',  and  a  series  of  retorts  followed  between 
them,  without  any  result.  O'Connell  half  shuffled  out  of  his 
expressions,  but  refused  to  apologize ;  the  chairman  (Bernal) 
took  no  notice,  and  the  matter  ended  by  a  speech  from  Stanley 
and  a  few  remarks  upon  it  from  Lord  John  Russell.  The  for- 
mer stated  his  reasons  for  this  ostentatious  locomotion,  which 
amounted  to  this :  that  he  had  been  rudely  treated  in  the 
House  by  ironical  cheers  and  other  intelligible  sounds,  and 
attacked  by  the  Government  newspapers,  and  he  had,  there- 
fore, departed  from  a  society  for  which  he  owned  he  was  not 
fitted.  It  was  not,  I  think,  dignified  or  judicious,  and  George 
Bentinck,  the  most  faithful  of  his  followers,  was  not  satisfied 
with  the  proceeding  or  the  explanation.  His  party,  such  as 


1S35.J         STANLEY  AND  GRAHAM  CROSS  THE  HOUSE.  405 

it  was,  was  finally  extinguished  by  this  act,  though  it  hardly 
had  any  existence  before ;  some  five  or  six  men,  among  whom 
were  Gaily  Knight,  George  Bcntinck,  Stratford  Canning,  and 
Sir  Matthew  Ridley,  went  over  to  the  Opposition  benches ; 
the  others  dispersed  where  they  chose. 

The  real  history  of  the  transaction  is  this :  it  originated 
with  Graham,  and  it  is  not  the  first  time  he  has  lugged  Stan- 
ley into  what  may  be  called  a  scrape.  He  was  returning 
from  some  division  to  his  usual  seat,  when  he  was  assailed  by 
those  cheers,  and  some  voice  cried  out,  "  Why  don't  you  stay 
where  you  are  ?  "  on  which  he  bowed  in  acquiescence  to  the 
quarter  whence  the  recommendation  proceeded,  and  instantly 
retreated  to  the  other  side.  The  next  day  he  told  Stanley  that 
he  must  now  stay  where  he  was,  and  at  the  same  time  he 
produced  the  Globe  newspaper,  which  contained  a  very  coarse 
attack  upon  Stanley  himself.  This  article,  together  with 
Graham's  representation,  determined  him  to  take  up  his  po- 
sition on  the  Opposition  bench,  and  accordingly  there  he  went, 
but  without  any  intimation  to  his  friends,  who,  to  their  great 
surprise,  found  him  there,  and  only  got  from  him  the  above 
explanation  that  evening  in  the  House.  Lord  John  Russell's 
reply  to  Stanley's  speech  was  very  courteous,  and  rather  well 
done  as  far  as  it  went,  for  he  only  said  a  few  words.  Lord 
Stanley  is  certainly  fallen  from  his  high  estate,  and  is  in  a 
very  different  position  from  that  which  he  aspired  to  occupy 
at  the  beginning  of  the  session.  He  is  without  a  party,  and 
without  any  authority  in  the  House  except  what  he  derives 
from  his  own  talents  for  debate.  He  has  'now  no  alternative 
but  to  unite  himself  with  Peel's  party,  and  to  act  under  him, 
without  any  pretension  to  competition,  and  without  the  pos- 
sibility of  being  considered  as  a  separate  element  of  political 
power.  He  has  been  brought  to  this  by  a  series  of  false  steps 
from  his  first  refusal  to  join  Peel,  followed  by  his  flippant 
and  undecided  conduct  throughout  the  great  contest.  The 
Whigs  and  the  Tories  both  hate  him,  and  neither  will  be  very 
ready  to  forgive  him.  There  is  a  mixture  of  contempt  in  the 
dislike  of  the  former,  and  an  undisguised  satisfaction  among 
the  most  violent  at  having  got  rid  of  him,  which  make  any 
future  approximation  to  their  side  impossible,  and  the  Tories, 
though  they  will  receive  him  in  their  ranks,  will  never  forgive 
him  for  his  conduct,  to  which  they  attribute  the  failure  of  the 
Conservative  effort,  for  his  presumption  in  endeavoring  to  set 
up  a  middle  party  and  render  himself  the  arbiter  of  the  con- 


i06  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

test  and  especially  for  his  affectation  of  want  of  confidence  in 
Peel  and  his  attacks  upon  the  Duke.  In  the  mean  time  this 
move  of  Stanley's  has  rather  served  to  streng  then  the  Govern- 
ment in  the  House  of  Commons;  between  the  disposition  of 
many  to  go  with  Government,  the  lukewarmness  and  indo- 
lence of  the  Conservatives,  and  the  steady  attendance  of  a 
phalanx  of  Radicals,  they  have  got  good,  regular  steady-work- 
ing majorities,  and  appear  as  strong  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons as  any  Government  need  be. 

July  kth. — Yesterday  Brougham  gave  judgment  in  the 
case  of  Swift  and  Kelly — a  written  judgment  and  at  great 
length.  I  thought  it  remarkably  well  done,  embracing  all 
the  points  of  the  case,  and  laying  down  the  law  and  the 
reasons  for  reversing  the  decree  of  the  court  below  in  a  very 
forcible  and  perspicuous  manner.  He  must  have  written  this 
judgment  with  great  rapidity,  for  it  was  only  on  Tuesday 
afternoon  that  it  was  settled  to  be  given  on  Thursday,  all  of 
which  is  a  proof  of  his  admirable  talents.  His  conduct  on  the 
last  day  of  the  hearing  and  this  judgment  in  some  degree 
made  up  for  his  previous  intemperance  and  violence.  He  said 
that  he  had  shown  the  judgment  to  Lord  Lyndhurst,  who  en- 
tirely agreed  with  him.  A  negotiation  had  been  previously 
opened  to  endeavor  to  get  the  other  side  to  concur  in  an  ap- 
plication to  the  court  to  stay  the  judgment  and  to  consent  to 
a  pecuniary  compromise,  but  it  was  quite  ineffectual. 

A  night  or  two  ago  there  was  a  breeze  at  Lady  Jersey's 
between  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  and  Alava,  and  many  stories 
made  of  it,  more  than  were  true.  The  Duke,  who  had  fre- 
quently taunted  him  before,  was  again  attacking  him  about 
his  expedition  and  Spanish  affairs  generally,  when  Alava  got 
into  a  fury  and  said  to  him,  "  Mcnseigneur,  Don  Carlos  peut 
etre  roi  d'Espagne,  mais  il  ne  sera  jamais  le  roi  du  general 
Alava."  This  Lord  Jersey  told  me,  and  that  the  other  things 
he  is  reported  to  have  said  to  the  Duke  are  not  true. 

July  7th. — I  can't  deny  that  many  persons  have  shown  a 
very  kind  disposition  to  assist  me  in  this  business  of  my  Ja- 
maica place,  of  different"  political  persuasions,  and  with  most 
of  whom  I  have  but  a  very  slight  personal  acquaintance, 
among  these  none  more  than  Mr.  Gladstone  and  Lord  Lin- 
coln, neither  of  whom  did  I  know  to  speak  to  till  I  put  myself 
into  communication  with  them  on  this  business.  On  the 
other  hand  Charles  Wood,  who  is  against  me  in  his  opinion, 
has  been  the  channel  of  communication  with  Barins;  and  shown 


1835.]  THE  KING  AND  LORD  GLEXELG.  407 

generally  a  good-will  toward  me.  These  demonstrations  are 
agreeable  enough,  and  contribute  to  put  one  in  harmony  with 
mankind,  but  it  is  after  all  a  humiliating  position,  and  I  feel 
unutterable  disgust,  and  something  akin  to  shame,  at  being 
compelled  to  solicit  the  protection  of  one  set  of  men,  and  the 
friendly  offices  of  another,  in  order  to  be  maintained  in  the 
possession  of  that  which  is  in  itself  obnoxious  to  public  feel- 
ing and  opinion.  A  placeman  is  in  these  days  an  odious 
animal,  and  as  a  double  placeman  I  am  doubly  odious,  and  I 
have  a  secret  kind  of  whispering  sensation  that  these  very 
people  who  good-naturedly  enough  assist  me  must  be  a  little 
shocked  at  the  cause  they  advocate.  All  that  can  be  said  in 
my  favor  is  not  obvious,  nor  can  it  be  properly  or  conven- 
iently brought  forward,  and  all  that  can  be  said  against  me 
lies  on  the  surface,  and  is  universally  evident.  The  funds 
from  which  I  draw  my  means  do  not  somehow  seem  a  pure 
source  ;  formerly  those  things  were  tolerated,  now  they  are 
not,  and  my  prospects  were  formed  and  destiny  determined  at 
a  remote  period,  while  I  incur  all  the  odium  and  encounter  all 
the  risks  consequent  upon  the  altered  state  of  public  feeling 
on  the  subject. 

July  15M. — Sefton  told  me  that  a  correspondence  has 
taken  place  between  Lord  Glenelg  and  Sir  Herbert  Taylor 
about  that  speech  of  the  King's  at  the  Council  on  Wednes- 
day se'nnight.  Glenelg  felt  himself  called  upon  to  inquire 
whether  the  blow  was  aimed  at  him,  and  it  was  evident  from 
the  tenor  of  the  reply  that  it  was.  I  heard  from  Stephen  a 
day  or  two  afterward  the  real  truth  of  this  matter.  It  was 
Lord  Glenelg  that  the  King  intended  to  allude  to  in  his 
speech.  Lord  Melbourne  spoke  to  his  Majesty  on  the  sub- 
ject, remonstrated,  and  said  it  was  impossible  to  carry  on  the 
Government  if  he  did  such  things.  He  said  that  he  was 
greatly  irritated,  and  had  acted  under  strong  feelings  in  con- 
sequence of  what  Glenelg  had  said  to  him.  Melbourne  re- 
joined, "Your  Majesty  must  have  mistaken  Lord  Glenelg." 
"  Not  at  all,"  said  the  King,  and  he  then  went  into  a  dispute 
they  had  had  about  the  old  constitution  of  Canada — I  forget 
what,  but  something  the  King  asserted  which  Glenelg  contra- 
dicted. He  repaired  to  the  Colonial  Office  and  told  Stephen, 
who  informed  him  that  the  King  was  right  and  he  was  wrong. 
(The  King,  in  fact,  had  got  it  up,  and  had  the  thing  at  his 
fingers'  ends.)  This  was  awkward  ;  however,  it  ended  in  the 
King'?,  malting  a  sort  of  apology  and  crying  peccavi  for  the 


408  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXVIIL 

violence  of  his  language,  and  this  will  probably  be  somewhat 
of  a  lesson  to  him,  though  it  will  not  diminish  the  bitterness 
of  his  sentiments  toward  his  Ministers. 

I  expressed  my  astonishment  that  any  man  could  consent 
to  stay  in  office  after  receiving  such  an  insult  as  this  was,  to 
which  Stephen  replied  that  they  were  all  thoroughly  aware  of 
their  position  relatively  to  the  King  and  of  his  feelings  tow- 
ard them ;  but  they  had  undertaken  the  task  and  were  re- 
solved under  all  circumstances  to  go  through  with  it,  and, 
whatever  he  might  say  or  do,  they  should  not  suffer  themselves 
to  be  influenced  or  shaken.  This  is  the  truth ;  they  do  not 
look  upon  themselves  as  his  Ministers,  and  perhaps  they  can- 
not do  otherwise  as  things  now  are.  It  is,  however,  a  very 
melancholy  and  mischievous  state  of  affairs,  and  does  more  to 
degrade  the  Monarchy  than  any  thing  that  has  ever  occurred : 
to  exhibit  the  King  publicly  to  the  world  as  a  cipher,  and 
something  less  than  a  cipher,  as  an  unsuccessful  competitor  in 
a  political  squabble,  is  to  take  from  the  Crown  all  the  dignity 
with  which  it  is  invested  by  that  theoretical  attribute  of  per- 
fection that  has  been  so  conveniently  ascribed  to  it.  Both 
King  and  Ministers  have  been  greatly  to  blame,  the  one  for 
the  egregious  folly  which  made  him  rush  into  this  sea  of  trou- 
ble and  mortification  without  calculation  or  foresight ;  the 
others  for  the  unrelenting  severity  with  which  they  resolved  to 
gratify  their  revenge  and  ambition,  without  considering  that 
they  could  not  punish  him  without  degrading  the  throne  of 
which  he  is  the  occupant,  and  that  the  principle  involved  in 
his  impunity  was  of  more  consequence  in  its  great  and  perma- 
nent results  than  any  success  of  theirs.  But  it  would  have  re- 
quired more  virtue,  self-denial,  wisdom,  and  philosophy,  than 
falls  to  the  lot  of  any  public  man  individually  in  these  days  to 
have  embraced  all  these  considerations,  and  it  would  have 
been  a  miracle  if  a  great  mob  of  men  calling  themselves  a 
party  could  have  been  made  to  act  under  the  influence  of  such 
moral  restraints.  The  King's  present  behavior  only  makes 
matters  worse.  When  he  found  himself  compelled  to  take 
these  people  back,  and  to  surrender  himself  a  prisoner  into 
their  hands,  he  should  have  swallowed  the  bitter  pill  and 
digested  it,  and  not  kept  rolling  it  in  his  mouth  and  making 
wry  faces.  He  should  have  made  a  very  bad  business  as  tol- 
erable as  he  could,  by  yielding  himself  with  a  good  grace ; 
and  had  he  treated  them  with  that  sort  of  courtesy  which  one 
gentleman  may  and  ought  to  show  to  all  those  with  whom  he 


1835.]  CONCERT  AT   STAFFORD   HOUSE.  409 

is  unavoidably  brought  into  contact,  and  which  implies  nothing 
as  to  feeling  and  inclination,  he  would  have  received  from 
them  that  respect  and  attention  which  it  would  have  been 
equally  their  interest  and  their  desire  to  show.  This  would 
have  rendered  their  relations  mutually  much  more  tolerable, 
a  decent  veil  would  have  been  thrown  over  all  that  was  humil- 
iating and  painful,  and  the  public  service  must  have  gained  by 
the  tacit  compromise ;  but  extreme  folly,  great  violence  in 
those  about  the  King,  and  hopes  of  emancipation  secretly  cher- 
ished, together  with  the  intensity  of  his  hatred  of  his  Minis- 
ters, have  conspired  to  keep  his  Majesty  in  his  present  unwise, 
irksome,  and  degrading  posture. 

The  night  before  last  there  was  a  great  concert  on  the 
staircase  at  Stafford  House,  the  most  magnificent  assembly  I 
ever  saw,  and  such  as  I  think  no  croAvned  head  in  Europe 
could  display,  so  grand  and  picturesque.  The  appearance  of 
the  hall  was  exactly  like  one  of  Paul  Veronese's  pictures,  and 
only  wanted  some  tapestry  to  be  hung  over  the  balustrades. 
Such  prodigious  space,  so  cool,  so  blazing  with  light ;  every- 
body was  comfortable  even,  and  the  concert  combined  the 
greatest  talents  in  Europe  all  together — Grisi,  Malibran,  Tam- 
burini,  Lablache,  Rubini,  and  Tvanhoff.  The  splendor,  the 
profusion,  and  the  perfect  ease  of  it  all,  were  really  admirable. 

Dined  yesterday  with  the  Vice-Chancellor ;  sixteen  people 
whom  I  never  saw  before,  almost  all  lawyers  and  lawyeresses. 
He  told  me  that  he  believed  Melbourne  had  no  intention  as 
long  as  he  was  Minister  of  changing  the  present  arrangement 
with  regard  to  the  Great  Seal,1  that  he  was  of  opinion  that  a 
Chancellor  was  of  no  use,  and  that  it  was  more  convenient  to 
keep  in  his  own  hands  the  law  patronage  of  the  Great  Seal, 
that  this  obviated  the  disputes  between  Ministers  and  Chan- 
cellors, which  have  generally  been  very  violent,  as  between 
Thurlow  and  Pitt,  and  still  more  between  Eldon  and  Liver- 
pool, which  were  incessant,  and  that  nothing  could  exceed  the 
hatred  Eldon  had  for  Lord  Liverpool,  as  he  knew. 

Tavistock  told  me  a  day  or  two  ago  that  his  Majesty's 
Ministers  are  intolerably  disgusted  at  his  behavior  to  them, 
and  his  studied  incivility  to  everybody  connected  with  them. 
The  other  day  the  Speaker  was  treated  by  him  with  shocking 
rudeness  at  the  drawing-room  He  not  only  took  no  notice 
of  him,  but  studiously  overlooked  him  while  he  was  standing 
opposite,  and  called  up  Manners  Sutton  and  somebody  else  to 

1  [The  Great  Seal  was  still  in  commission.] 
40 


HO  REIGN  OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVIIL 

mark  the '  difference  by  extreme  gracicusness  to  the  latter. 
Seymour,  who  was  with  him  as  Sergeant-at-Arrr.s,  said  he  had 
never  seen  a  Speaker  so  used  in  the  five-and-twenty  years  he 
had  been  there,  and  that  it  was  most  painful.  The 'Speaker 
asked  him  if  he  had  ever  seen  a  man  in  his  situation  so  re- 
ceived at  Court.  Since  he  has  been  Speaker  the  King  has 
never  taken  the  slightest  notice  of  him.  It  is  monstrous, 
equally  undignified  and  foolish. 

July  I8th. — Yesterday  I  sat  all  day  at  my  office  wondering 
why  I  heard  nothing  of  the  Committee,  till  at  half-past  four 
o'clock  Graham  and  Lord  Lincoln  came  in  with  smiling  counte- 
nances, that  announced  good  news.  They  had  had  an  angry 
debate  of  three  hours'  duration.  Baring  moved  that  my  hold- 
ing the  office  of  Secretary  of  Jamaica  was  against  the  spirit 
of  the  Act  of  Parliament.  Graham  mcved  that  holding  it  with 
the  leave  of  absence  was  in  accordance  with  the  Act,  and  the 
division  was  nine  to  seven.  A  teller  on  each  side  and  Baring, 
who  as  chairman  did  not  vote,  made  the  numbers  ten  to  nine. 
They  told  me  that  Baring  and  Vernon  Smith  were  furious. 
The  former  endeavored  to  turn  off  his  defeat  by  proposing  that 
the  question  should  be  reopened  on  framing  the  report ;  but 
even  Grote  opposed  that,  and  he  was  forced  to  own  that  he 
was  wrong  in  proposing  it.  I  must  say  that  Gladstone  told 
me  that  Baring  behaved  very  well  after  the  division.  I  will 
not  conceal  the  truth,  much  as  I  have  reason  to  complnin  of 
the  man.  I  owe  this  victory  to  the  zealous  assistance  of  the 
Conservatives,  for  not  one  Whig  or  Radical  voted  with  me  ; 
some  of  the  former  staid  away,  whether  designedly  or  not  I 
don't  know,  except  Stanley,  Secretary  to  the  Treasury,  who 
told  me  he  could  not  make  up  his  mind  to  go  and  vote  against 
me.  The  majority  consisted  of  Ilerries,  Fremantle  (Sir  Thom- 
as), Gladstone,  Nicholl,  Graham,  Lord  Lincoln,  Bethel!,  Fector, 
Brarn  stone,  and  Pringle  ;  the  minority,  Baring,  Vernon  Smith, 
Pendarves,  Ruthven,  Scholefield,  Evans,  Grote,  Hume,  R.  Stew- 
art. I  never  had  any  intimacy  with  any  one  of  those  who 
supported  me  except  with  Graham,  and  we  were  friends,  and 
very  intimate  friends,  twenty  years  ago.  He  dropped  me  all 
of  a  sudden  from  caprice  or  calculation,  and  we  have  been  on 
very  decent  but  scarcely  cordial  terms  ever  since.  On  this 
occasion  I  whipped  up  the  old  friendship,  and  with  great  ef- 
fect, for  he  has  served  me  very  zealously  throughout  the  busi- 
ness. I  scarcely  knew  any  of  the  others  before,  Lord  Lincoln 
and  Gladstone  only  on  this  occasion,  and  Fector,  Nicholl 


1835.]  IRISH   CHURCH   BILL.  411 

Bramstone,  Bethell,  and  Pringle,  I  do  not  know  now  by  sight. 
It  is  really  amusing  to  see  the  joy  with  which  the  news  of 
Baring's  defeat  has  been  hailed  by  every  member  of  his  own 
family,  and  all  others  who  have  heard  of  it.  The  good-will  of 
the  world  (a  very  inert  but  rather  satisfactory  feeling)  has  been 
exhibited  toward  me,  and  there  is  mixed  up  with  it  in  all  who 
are  acquainted  with  the  surly  reformer  who  is  my  adversary  a 
lively  pleasure  at  his  being  baffled  and  mortified. 

July  23(7. — Dined  with  Bingham  Baring  *  yesterday,  and 
met  Whateley,  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  a  very  ordinary  man  in 
appearance  and  conversation,  with  something  of  pretension 
in  his  talk,  and  telling  stories  without  point,  which  smelt  of 
the  Common  room  ;  nevertheless,  he  is  a  very  able  man,  and 
they  told  me  that  when  he  is  with  such  men  as  Senior,  and 
those  with  whom  he  is  very  intimate,  he  shines.  I  was  greatly 
disappointed  with  what  I  saw  and  heard  of  him.  The 
Church  Bill  has  been  in  the  House  of  Commons  these  two 
nights.  Peel  introduced  his  motion  for  dividing  the  Bill  in  a 
very  able  speech,  well  adapted  to  the  purpose,  if  any  thing 
was  to  be  gained  in  such  a  House  of  Commons ;  but  the  fact 
is,  both  parties  look  beyond  the  immediate  question :  one 
wants  to  bolster  up  the  present  system,  the  other  to  overthrow 
it,  and  though  I  go  along  with  Peel  on  his  point,  I  go  along 
with  his  opponents  on  their  jyrinciple.  He  stated,  however, 
very  forcibly  the  dilemma  in  which  his  opponents  are  placed, 
and  said,  "  Why  don't  you  make  the  Establishment  Catholic 
at  once,  openly  and  avowedly,  or  abstain  from  doing  what  has 
that  inevitable  tendency  ? "  Melbourne  said  there  was  no 
escape  from  this,  and  I  replied  that  I  would  take  him  at  his 
word,  and  that  it  must  come  to  this,  and  he  might  immortalize 
himself  by  settling  the  question.  It  certainly  would  be  a 
glorious  field  for  a  statesman  to  enter  upon  to  brush  away  all 
the  obstacles  which  deeply-rooted  prejudices  and  chimerical 
fears  founded  on  false  reasoning  throw  in  his  way,  and  bend 
all  his  energies  to  a  direct  and  vigorous  course  of  policy,  at 
once  firm  and  determined,  looking  the  real  evil  in  the  face, 
and  applying  the  real  remedy  to  it.  If  I  were  Prime  Minister 
I  would  rather  fall  in  the  attempt  than  work  on  through  a 
succession  of  expedients  none  of  which  were  satisfactory  to 
myself,  to  hold  language  at  variance  with  my  opinions,  and  to 
truckle  to  difficulties  which  it  is  now  time  boldly  to  face.  I 
am  as  satisfied  as  of  my  existence  that  if  the  heart's  core  of 
Peel  could  be  laid  open,  it  would  be  found  that  he  thinks  so 
1  FAfYpnrard  the  second  Lord  As 


±12  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

himself.  His  is  not  conduct  of  conviction,  and  he  has  been 
led  into  contradictions  and  inconsistencies  which  must  ever 
beset  and  entangle  those  who  persist  in  the  attempt  to  main- 
tain positions  which  have  ceased  to  be  tenable. 

Goodwood,  July  29th. — To  Petworth  on  Saturday  and  here 
on  Monday ;  a  smaller  party  than  usual,  and  no  women  on 
account  of  the  Duchess  of  Argyll's  death ;  far  better  not  to 
have  women  at  a  racing-party.  Tavistock  told  me  that  a  man 
(he  did  not  say  who)  had  been  to  Lord  John,  evidently  com- 
missioned, though  not  avowedly,  to  tell  him  on  the  part  of  Peel 
and  Lord  Stanley  that  they  would  both  support  him  if  he 
would  bring  forward  a  proposition  to  pay  the  Irish  Catholic 
clergy.  John,  however,  "  timet  Danaos  et  dona  ferentes,"  and 
hinted  that  his  own  popularity  would  be  sacrificed  if  he  did. 
This  is  curious,  however.  John  also  told  him  that  he  never 
saw  Peel  laugh  so  much  as  during  Graham's  speech  the  other 
night,  and  he  meant  (but  forgot  it)  to  ask  him  why  he  laughed 
so.  To  Peel  it  is  nuts  to  see  Stanley  and  Graham  drawing 
down  unpopularity  on  themselves  and  every  day  widening  the 
breach  between  them  and  their  old  friends ;  but  I  was  some- 
what struck  with  the  apparent  intimacy  which  was  evinced  in 
what  John  Russell  said  about  Peel,  and  asked  his  brother  if 
they  were  on  very  good  personal  terms.  He  said,  "  Oh,  excel- 
lent " — a  sort  of  House  of  Commons  intimacy.  Peel  told 
John  all  he  meant  to  do  in  the  Committee  on  the  Church  Bill 
— that  he  should  propose  so  and  so,  and  when  they  came  to  the 
appropriation  clauses  he  should  make  his  bow  and  leave  them. 
Tavistock  remarked  (which  had  escaped  me)  that  Peel  had  in 
his  last  famous  speech  (certainly  one  of  extraordinary  ability) 
omitted  all  mention  of  the  principle  of  appropriation,  and  con- 
fined himself  to  the  proof  that  there  was  no  surplus  ;  but  what 
is  most  remarkable  perhaps  of  all  is  this :  Peel  said  to  John, 
"  If  you  will  appropriate,  I  will  show  you  a  much  better  plan 
than  your  own,"  and  he  accordingly  did  show  him  a  plan 
by  which  there  would  be  a  considerably  greater  surplus,  and 
John  acknowledged  that  Peel's  plan  would  be  better  than  his 
own.  I  wonder  what  the  High  Tories  and  the  King  would 
think  of  all  this?  While  he  is  quarreling  with  Johnny  and 
his  friends  for  Peel's  sake,  and  undergoing  martyrdom  in  his 
social  relations  with  them,  there  they  are  hand  and  glove,  and 
almost  concerting  together  the  very  measures  which  are  the 
cause  of  all  the  animosities  and  all  the  political  violence  which 
agitate  and  divide  the  world.  There  is  something  extremely 
ludicrous  in  all  this. 


1835.]  THE   MUNICIPAL   CORPORATION  BILL.  413 

I  hear  to-day  that  Peel  is  going  into  the  country  for  good, 
and  leaves  the  Lords  to  deal  with  the  Bills.  He  probably 
expects  them  to  commit  some  follies,  and  fancies  he  may  as 
well  be  out  of  the  way. 

August  4:th. — Came  to  town  on  Sunday,  having  slept  at 
Winchester  on  Saturday  night  to  see  the  town  and  the  cathe- 
dral, and  hear  the  service  in  the  latter,  which  was  very  mod- 
erate; the  cathedral,  however,  is  worth  seeing.  When  I  got 
to  town  I  found  the  Tory  Lords  had  been  worked  into  a  frenzy 
by  Wetherell  and  Knight 1  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Lords 
(the  latter  of  whom  is  said  to  have  made  a  very  able  speech), 
and  Newcastle  and  Winchelsea  bellowed  and  blustered  in 
grand  style.  Lord  Rosslyn  had  told  me  some  time  ago  that 
the  Duke  would  have  great  difficulty  in  managing  his  people, 
but  that  I  think  was  d  propos  of  the  Church  Bill.  Yesterday 
at  two  o'clock  there  was  a  great  assemblage  of  Peers  at 
Apsley  House  to  determine  what  was  to  be  done,  and  amazed 
was  I  when  I  learned  at  about  five  o'clock  that  they  had  re- 
solved to  move  that  evidence  should  be  heard  against  the 
principle  of  the  Municipal  Corporation  Bill,  which  was  accord- 
ingly moved  by  Carnarvon  last  night.  At  dinner  I  met  Stuart, 
to  whom  I  expressed  my  astonishment  at  the  course  they  had 
adopted,  and  he  owned  that  it  was  "  rather  hazardous,"  and 
said  that  it  was  adopted  at  the  suggestion  of  Lyndhurst,  who 
had  insisted  upon  it  at  Apsley  House,  and  that  the  Duke  had 
given  way.  He  said  that  this  had  followed  as  a  necessary 
consequence  of  Brougham  proposing  that  counsel  should  be 
heard  upon  the  details,  as  it  appeared  that  the  evidence  on 
which'  the  Bill  was  founded  was  not  to  be  relied  on.  He 
owned  that  it  was  probable  Peel  would  disapprove  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Lords,  and  a  breach  between  him  and  them 
be  the  consequence.  He  told  me  that  at  a  dinner  on  Saturday, 
at  which  the  Dukes  of  Wellington  and  Cumberland,  Peel,  and 
Wetherell,  were  present,  the  question  had  been  argued;  that 
Sir  Charles  Wetherell  had  urged  all  the  leading  arguments  he 
had  used  in  his  speech,  and  Peel  had  contested  every  part  and 
particle  of  his  argument,  while  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  did 
not  utter  a  word.  Stuart  added  that  he  heard  the  Govern- 
ment meditated  something  very  strong,  and  I  repeated  what 
Hobhouse  had  told  me  in  the  morning,  when  I  met  him  in  the 
Park — that  Melbourne  would  probably  adjourn  the  House, 
that  there  would  be  a  call  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  some 
1  [Mr.  Knight  Bruce,  afterward  Lord  Justice  in  Equity.] 


414  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVIII 

strong  resolution  proposed  there.  Some  Whigs,  however, 
who  were  present  last  night,  suggested  that  it  would  be  bet- 
ter to  adjourn  the  House  of  Commons,  and  let  the  Lords  go 
on  with  their  evidence  while  they  pleased  to  hear  it,  and  then 
reassemble  the  Commons  in  case  the  Bill  was  sent  back  to 
them.  Hobhouse  said,  "  Depend  upon  it,  it  is  the  commence- 
ment de  la  fin"  It  does  certainly  appear  to  me  that  these 
Tory  Lords  will  never  rest  till  they  have  accomplished  the 
destruction  of  the  House  of  Lords.  They  are  resolved  to 
bring  about  a  collision  with  the  House  of  Commons,  and  the 
majority  in  each  House  grows  every  day  more  rabid  and  more 
desperate.  I  am  at  a  loss  to  comprehend  the  views  by  which 
Lyndhurst,  the  ablest  of  the  party,  is  actuated,  or  how  he  can 
(if  it  be  so,  which  from  Stuart's  account  is  probable)  fancy 
that  any  object  is  attainable  which  involves  in  it  a  breach  or 
separation  between  Peel  and  the  great  body  of  the  Tories.  I 
would  give  much  to  see  the  recesses  of  his  mind,  and  know 
what  he  really  thinks  of  all  these  proceedings,  and  to  what 
consequences  he  believes  that  they  will  lead. 

August  6th. — Yesterday  to  Brighton,  to  see  my  horse 
Dacre  run  for  the  Brighton  stake,  which  he  won,  and  back 
at  night.  The  day  before  I  met  the  Vice-Chancellor  1  at 
Charing  Cross,  going  down  to  the  House  of  Lords.  "  Well," 
said  he,  shrugging  his  shoulders,  "  here  I  am  going  to  the 
House  of  Lords,  after  hearing  evidence  all  the  morning,  to 
hear  it  again  for  the  rest  of  the  evening."  "  What  is  to  hap- 
pen ?  "  I  asked  him.  "  O  Lord,  it  is  the  greatest  bore ;  they 
have  heard  Coventry  and  Oxford;  they  got  something  of  a  case 
out  of  the  first,  but  the  other  was  beyond  any  thing  tiresome ; 
they  are  sick  to  death  of  it,  and  Brougham  and  Lyndhurst 
have  agreed  that  it  is  all  damned  nonsense,  and  they  will  hear 
nothing  more  after  Saturday  next."  So  this  is  the  end  of  all 
this  hubbub,  and  here  are  these  two  great  comedians  thunder- 
ing against  each  other  in  the  House  of  Lords  overnight,  with 
all  imaginable  vehemence  and  solemnity,  only  to  meet  to- 
gether the  next  morning  and  agree  that  it  is  all  damned  non- 
sense. There  is  something  very  melancholy  and  very  ludi- 
crous in  all  this,  and  though  that  great  bull-calf  the  public  does 
not  care  about  such  things,  and  is  content  to  roar  when  he  is 
bid,  there  are  those  on  the  alert  who  will  turn  such  trifling 
and  folly  to  account,  and  convert  what  is  half  ridiculous  into 

_ r  [The  Great  Seal  being  in  commission,  the  Vice-Chancellor  of  England 
(Sir  Lancelot  Shadwell)  sat  as  one  of  the  Commissioners  on  the  Woolsack.] 


1835.]  THE   KING   AND   LORD   TORRtNGTOX.  415 

something  all-serious.  Winchelsea  and  Newcastle,  after  all, 
did  not  vote  the  other  night ;  they  said  they  wanted  no  evi- 
dence, that  they  would  have  no  such  Bill,  and  would  not  med- 
dle with  the  discussion  at  all,  except  to  oppose  it  point-blank. 
Fools  as  they  are,  their  folly  is  more  tolerable  and  probably 
less  mischievous  than  the  folly  of  the  wise  ones. 

August  2th. — On  Wednesday  last  at  the  levee  the  King- 
made  a  scene  with  Lord  Torrington,  one  of  his  Lords  of  the 
Bedchamber,  and  a  very  disgraceful  scene.  A  card  was  put 
into  Torrington's  hands  of  somebody  who  was  presented,  which 
he  read,  "  So  and  so,  Deputy-  Governor."  "  Deputy-Governor  ?  " 
said  the  King,  "  Deputy-Governor  of  what?"  "I  cannot  tell 
your  Majesty,"  replied  Torrington,  "  as  it  is  not  upon  the 
card."  "  Hold  your  tongue,  sir !"  said  the  King  ;  "you  had 
better  go  home  and  learn  to  read  ;  "  and,  shortly  after,  when 
some  bishop  presented  an  address  against  (I  believe)  the  Irish 
Tithe  Bill,  and  the  King  was  going  as  usual  to  hand  over  the 
papers  to  the  Lord  in  waiting,  he  stopped  and  said  to  Lord 
Torrington,  who  advanced  to  take  them,  "  No,  Lord  Torring- 
ton ;  these  are  not  fit  documents  to  be  intrusted  to  your  keep- 
ing." His  habitual  state  of  excitement  will  probably  bring 
on,  sooner  or  later,  the  malady  of  his  family.  Torrington  is 
a  young  man  in  a  difficult  position,  or  he  ought  to  have  re- 
signed instantly  and  as  publicly  as  the  insult  was  offered. 
The  King  cannot  bridle  his  temper,  and  lets  slip  no  opportu- 
nity of  showing  his  dislike,  impotent  as  it  is,  of  the  people 
who  surround  him.  He  admits  none  but  Tories  into  his  pri- 
vate society,  wherever  he  goes  Tories  accompany  him ;  at 
Windsor  Tories  only  are  his  guests.  This  provokes  his  Min- 
isters, but  it  necessarily  makes  them  more  indifferent  to  the 
cultivation  of  his  favor,  and  accustoms  them  to  consider  them- 
selves as  the  Ministers  of  the  House  of  Commons  and  not  of 
the  Crown. 

My  brother  writes  me  from  Paris  very  interesting  details 
of  the  funeral  of  the  victims  of  the  assassination  plot,1  which 
was  an  imposing  and  magnificent  ceremony,  admirably  ar- 
ranged, and  as  it  has  produced  a  burst  of  enthusiasm  for  the 
King,  and  has  brought  round  the  clergy  to  him,  it  will  serve 
to  strengthen  his  throne.  His  undaunted  courage  ingratiates 
him  with  the  French. 

August  15th. — On  Wednesday  the  Lords  commenced  pro- 
ceedings on  the  Corporation  Bill.  The  Ministers  were  aware 
'  [The  victims  of  the  Fieschi  conspiracy.] 


416  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXVIIL 

that  they  meant  to  throw  it  out,  for  Lord  John  Russell  and 
Lord  Lansdowne  both  told  me  at  the  levee  that  they  had  heard 
such  was  the  intention  of  the  Tories,  However,  they  never 
had  such  a  design,  and  the  second  reading  passed  without  a 
division  ;  on  Thursday  they  went  into  Committee,  and  the 
freemen's  clause  was  carried  against  Government  by  a  major- 
ity of  93 — 130  to  237 — the  debate  being  distinguished  by 
divers  sallies  of  intemperance  from  Brougham,  who  thundered, 
and  menaced,  and  gesticulated,  in  his  finest  style.  When 
somebody  cried,  "Question,"  he  burst  out,  "Do  you  think  to 
put  me  down  ?  I  have  stood  against  300  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  do  you  think  1  will  give  way  to  you  f  "  This  was  ut- 
tered with  all  imaginable  rage  and  scorn.1  This  amendment 
was  always  anticipated,  and  though  the  Government  object  to 
it,  Lord  Lansdowne  told  me  that  as  the  rate-paying  clause  had 
passed  without  opposition,  he  did  not  care  for  the  other  alter- 
ations, but  the  minority  appeared  to  everybody  bordering 
upon  the  ridiculous ;  a  Minister  who  could  only  muster  thirty- 
seven  present,  and  who  was  in  a  minority  of  three  to  one,  pre- 
sented a  novel  spectacle.  Nobody  could  account  for  the  care- 
lessness of  their  muster,  for  many  Peers  were  absent  who 
might  easily  have  been  there,  and  several  who  belong  to 
Government  by  office  or  connection.  It  did  not,  however, 
occur  to  anybody  that  they  would  feel  themselves  compelled 
to  resign  upon  it,  except  perhaps  to  a  few  Tories,  who  hinted 
their  notion  that  Melbourne  could  not  go  on  with  such  a 
majority  against  him,  which,  however  true  it  may  be  in  the 
long-run,  signifies  nothing  as  to  any  immediate  change. 

Last  night  the  qualification  clause  was  carried  against 
Government  by  an  equally  large  majority,  or  nearly  so,  and 
this  time  Government  does  not  seem  disposed  to  take  it  so 
patiently.  It  was  well  understood  that  a  qualification  would 
be  imposed,  and  many  of  the  supporters  of  the  Bill  said  they 

1  Brougham  had  some  reason  to  be  angry.  Lyndhurst  did  not  reply  to  him 
on  AVednesday,  when  he  might  have  done  so,  pleading  the  fatigue  of  late  hours 
and  his  own  indisposition,  and  on  Thursday  he  attacked  him  when  he  was  ab- 
sent ;  he  therefore  gave  him  good  ground  for  complaint.  Brougham's  inso- 
lence and  violence  have  done  great  injury  to  the  House  of  Lords  by  lowering 
the  style  and  character  of  their  debates  and  introducing  coarseness  and  acri- 
mony such  as  never  were  known  there  before.  Hardly  a  night  passes  without 
some  discreditable  scene  of  squabbling  and  vituperation  bandied  between  him 
and  the  High  Tory  Lords,  one  or  other  of  them  ;  their  hatred  of  him  and  his 
scorn  of  them  are  everlastingly  breaking  out.  He  and  Lyndhurst,  though  con- 
stantly pitted  against  each  other,  are  great  friends  all  the  time,  but  with  the 
others  it  is  a  rabid  passion  of  hatred  and  contempt,  mutually  felt  and  continu- 
ally expressed. 


1S35.]  DEBATE   ON   THE   CORPORATION  BILL.  417 

did  not  object  thereto,  but  they  had  no  notion  of  such  a  quali- 
fication as  Lyndhurst  proposed  and  carried  last  night,  and 
the  Duke  of  Richmond  (whom  I  met  at  Crockford's)  told  me 
that  it  would  be  fatal  to  the  Bill.  He  saw  Lord  John  Russell 
after  the  division,  who  told  him  so,  and  that  the  Commons 
would  never  take  the  Bill  with  such  an  alteration  as  this. 
Richmond  himself  goes  entirely  with  Government  in  this 
measure,  and  I  was  rather  surprised  to  hear  him  say  that  "  it 
had  been  urged  that  Lord  Stanley  was  opposed  to  this  part 
of  the  Bill,  but  that  if  this  were  so  a  man  must  judge  for  him- 
self in  so  important  a  matter,"  which  looks  a  little  as  if  he 
meant  to  back  out  of  the  dilly,  and  I  should  not  be  very  much 
surprised  if  he  came  into  office  again  with  these  people,  if 
they  stay  in.  I  asked  him  what  in  his  opinion  would  happen, 
and  he  replied  that  he  thought  the  House  of  Lords  was  nearly 
done  for,  that  he  expected  the  Commons  would  reject  their 
amendments  and  pass  some  very  strong  resolutions ;  he  should 
not  be  surprised  if  they  refused  to  pass  the  Appropriation 
Bill.  I  said  they  would  hardly  do  that,  because  it  would  be 
a  measure  against  Government,  and  would  compel  these  Min- 
isters to  resign.  This  he  admitted,  but  he  went  on  to  say  that 
he  expected  it  would  throw  the  House  of  Commons  into  a 
ferment,  that  they  would  adopt  some  violent  course,  and  then 
there  would  be  a  "  row  royal."  What  astonishes  me  most  in 
all  this  is  that  Lyndhurst,  a  man  of  great  abilities,  and  cer- 
tainly, if  wishing  for  any  thing,  wishing  for  the  success  of  the 
party  lie  belongs  to,  should  urge  these  desperate  courses.  He 
it  was  who  proposed  the  fatal  postponement  of  Schedule  A, 
which  led  to  such  utter  ruin  and  confusion,  and  now  it  is  he 
who  manages  this  Bill,  and  who  ventures  to  mutilate  the  Min- 
isterial measure  in  such  a  manner  as  will  in  all  probability 
bring  down  all  the  Avrath  of  the  Commons  on  him  and  his  Con- 
servative majority.  I  am  not  at  all  sure  but  that  the  Govern- 
ment is  content  to  exhibit  its  paltry  numbers  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  in  order  that  the  world  may  see  how  essentially  it  is  a 
Tory  body,  that  it  hardly  fulfills  the  conditions  of  a  great 
independent  legislative  assembly,  but  presents  the  appearance 
of  a  dominant  party-faction  which  is  too  numerous  to  be 
affected  by  any  constitutional  process  and  too  obstinate  to  be 
turned  from  its  fixed  purpose  of  opposing  all  the  measures 
which  have  a  tendency  to  diminish  the  influence  of  the  Con- 
servative party  in  the  country.  It  is  impossible  to  look  at 
the  disposition  exhibited  by  this  great  majority  and  not  admit 


418  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

that  there  is  very  small  chance  of  its  acting  harmoniously 
with  the  present  House  of  Commons,  and  that  some  change 
must  take  place  in  order  to  enable  Government  and  legisla- 
tion to  go  on  at  all.  It  is  any  thing  but  clear  that  the  nation 
desires  the  destruction  of  the  House  of  Lords,  nor  is  it  clear 
that  the  nation  cares  for  its  preservation.  It  is,  I  think, 
exceedingly  probable  that  a  majority  of  those  who  return 
members  to  Parliament,  and  in  whom  collectively  the  supreme 
power  really  resides,  though  they  might  be  content  to  retain 
the  House  of  Lords,  if  it  could  be  made  to  act  in  harmony 
with,  and  therefore  necessarily  in  subordination  to,  the  House 
of  Commons,  would  not  hesitate  for  an  instant  to  decree  its 
downfall  if  it  became  clear  that  there  was  no  other  way  of 
crushing  the  Tory  faction  which  now  rules  triumphant  in  that 
House.  At  all  events  the  Lords  are  playing  a  desperate 
game ;  if  it  succeeds,  they  who  direct  the  energies  of  the 
party  are  great  and  wise  men ;  but  what  if  it  fail  ?  They 
seem  to  have  no  answer  to  this  but  that  if  they 

Screw  their  courage  to  the  sticking  place, 
It  will  not  fail. 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

Kesistance  of  the  Lords — Duke  of  Richmond — Happiness — Struggle  between  Lords  and 
Commons — Peel  keeps  aloof— Inconsistency  of  the  Whigs  on  the  Irish  Church  Bill- 
Violent  Language  in  the  Lords — Lord  John  Russell  and  Peel  pass  the  Corporation 
Bill — Dissolution  of  the  Tory  Party  foreseen — Meeting  of  Peers  to  consider  the  Amend- 
ments—King's Speech  in  Council  on  the  Militia— Lord  Howick's  Bitterness  against  the 
Lords — Lord  Lyndhurst's  Opinion  of  the  Corporation  Bill — The  King's  Language  on 
the  Regency — Talleyrand's  view  of  the  English  Alliance — Comparison  of  Burke  and 
Mackintosh — The  St.  Legcr — Visit  of  Princess  Victoria  to  Burghley — O'ConneLTs  Prog- 
ress Through  Scotland — Mackintosh's  Life. 

August  19£A. — Yesterday  the  Lords  finished  the  Com- 
mittee on  the  Corporation  Bill.  Their  last  amendment  (which 
I  do  not  very  well  understand  at  present),  by  which  certain 
aldermen  elected  for  life  are  to  be  taken  in  the  first  instance 
from  the  present  aldermen,  has  disgusted  the  authors  of  the 
Bill  more  than  all  the  rest.  In  the  morning  I  met  Duncannon 
and  Howick,  both  open-mouthed  against  the  amendments, 
and  this  in  particular,  and  declaring  that  though  the  others 
might  have  been  stomached,  this  could  not  go  down,  as  it  was 
in  direct  opposition  to  the  principle  of  the  Bill.  Howick 


1835.]  OBSTINACY   OF   THE   LORDS.  419 

talked  of  "the  Lords  being  swept  away  like  chaff"  and  of 
"  the  serious  times  that  were  approaching."  Duncannon 
said  there  would  be  a  conference,  and  if  the  Lords  insisted  on 
these  amendments  the  Bill  would  be  lost.  I  asked  if  a  com- 
promise was  not  feasible,  the  Lords  abandoning  this  and  the 
Commons  taking  the  other  amendments,  which  he  said  would 
not  be  undesirable,  but  difficult  to  effect.  The  continual  dis- 
cussions about  this  Bill  have  made  me  perforce  understand 
something  of  it  toward  the  end  of  them.  I  am  too  ignorant 
of  the  details  and  of  the  tendency  of  the  Bill  to  have  an 
opinion  of  the  comparative  merits  of  its  present  and  its 
original  shape,  but  I  am  sure  the  Lords  are  bound  in  prudence 
not  to  mutilate  it  more  than  is  absolutely  necessary  to  make 
it  a  safe  measure,  and  to  have  a  good,  and  moreover  a  popu- 
lar, case  to  go  to  the  country  with,  if  eventually  such  an  ap- 
peal is  to  be  made.  On  the  other  hand  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, powerful  as  it  is,  must  not  assert  its  power  too 
peremptorily,  and  before  the  Ministers  determine  to  resign, 
for  the  purpose  of  making  their  resignation  instrumental  to 
the  consolidation  of  their  power  and  the  destruction  of  the 
House  of  Lords  ;  they  also  must  have  a  good  case,  and  be 
able  to  show  that  the  amendments  made  by  the  Lords  are  in- 
compatible with  the  object  proposed,  that  they  were  made  in 
a  factious  spirit  and  for  the  express  purpose  of  thwarting  the 
principle  contended  for,  and  that  their  conduct  in  this  matter 
forms  part  of  a  general  system,  which  can  only  be  counter- 
acted by  some  fundamental  change  in  the  constitution  of  the 
Upper  House  itself.  These  are  violent  conclusions  to  come 
to,  and  when  one  reflects  calmly  upon  the  possible  and  prob- 
able consequences  of  a  collision,  and  the  manner  in  which  the 
interests  of  the  antagonistic  parties  collectively  and  indi- 
vidually are  blended  together,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that 
both  will  not  pause  on  the  brink  of  the  precipice  and  be 
influenced  by  a  simultaneous  desire  to  come  to  a  decent  and 
practicable  compromise.  This  would  probably  be  easy  if  both 
parties  were  actuated  by  a  sincere  desire  to  enact  a  law  to 
reform  corporations  in  the  safest,  best,  and  most  satisfactory 
manner  ;  but  the  reformation  of  the  corporations  is  not  the 
first  object  in  the  minds  of  either.  One  wants  to  save  as 
much  as  possible  of  the  Tory  influence,  which  is  menaced  by 
the  Bill,  and  the  other  wants  to  court  the  democratic  spirit, 
which  vivifies  its  party,  and  erect  a  new  and  auxiliary  in- 
fluence on  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  establishments.  Any 


420  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

mere  looker-on  must  perceive  through  all  their  wranglings 
that  these  are  the  arriere-pensees  of  the  two  antagonistic 
parties. 

Brougham  made  a  very  clever  speech  (I  am  told)  on  Mon- 
day night,  and  the  contest  between  him  and  Lyndhurst 
through  the  whole  Committee  has  been  remarkable  for  talent 
and  for  a  striking  display  of  the  different  qualities  of  the  two 
men.  The  Duke  of  Richmond  had  a  squabble  with  Lynd- 
hurst last  night,  "  impar  congressus,"  and  he  has  wriggled 
himself  almost  back  among  the  Whigs  ;  nothing  but  the  ap- 
propriation clause  in  the  Church  Bill  prevents  his  being  First 
Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  and  he  may  be  considered  as  having 
dropped  off  the  dilly  with  so  many  others.  The  Whigs  are 
dying  to  have  him  back  among  them.  I  must  confess  I  do 
not  see  why,  but  it  is  impossible  to  deny  that  he  contrives  to 
make  himself  desired  by  those  with  whom  he  has  acted,  and 
as  they  must  know  best  what  they  are  about  and  what  he  is 
capable  of,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  he  has  some 
talents  or  some  qualities  which  are  developed  in  the  graver 
affairs  of  life,  but  which  do  not  appear  in  its  ordinary  relations 
and  habitudes.  I  thought  what  he  said  to  me  the  other  night 
looked  like  a  severance  of  his  Stanley  connection,  and  his 
strenuous  support  of  this  Bill  and  his  pettish  attacks  upon 
Lyndhurst  show  that  he  at  least  is  not  likely  to  ally  himself 
with  the  Conservatives. 

August  2~Lst. — Yesterday  I  fell  in  with  Lyndhurst,  just 
getting  out  of  his  carriage  at  his  door  in  George  Street.  He 
asked  me  to  come  in  and  look  at  his  house,  which  I  did.  I 
asked  him  what  would  happen  about  the  Bill.  He  said:  "Oh, 
they  will  take  it.  What  can  they  do  ?  If  they  choose  to  throw 
it  out,  let  them  do  so;  I  don't  care  whether  they  do  or  not. 
Bat  they  will  take  it,  because  they  know  it  does  their  business, 
though  not  so  completely  as  they  desire."  He  said  he  would 
alter  the  qualification,  though  he  did  not  think  it  objection- 
able. I  told  him  I  hoped  there  might  be  some  compromise, 
and  that  he  and  his  friends  would  give  way  on  some  of  their 
amendments,  and  that  the  Commons  would  take  the  rest. 
Even  the  Times,  which  goes  the  whole  hog  with  the  Opposi- 
tion, won't  swallow  this  (the  aldermen),  and  suggests  that  it 
should  be  withdrawn.  Nothing  ever  was  like  the  outrageous 
indecency  of  the  attacks  upon  the  House  of  Lords  in  the 
Ministerial  papers,  and  it  is  n,ot  clear  that  they  won't  overdo 
the  thing  ;  this  kind  of  fury  generally  defeats  its  own  object 


1835.]  WHAT   IS  HAPPINESS?  421 

August  25th. — At  Hillingdon  from  Saturday  till  Monday 
last ;  began  the  life  of  Mackintosh,  and  was  delighted  with 
Sydney  Smith's  letter  which  is  prefixed  to  it  ;  read  and 
walked  all  day  on  Sunday — the  two  things  I  do  least,  viz.,  ex- 
ercise my  mind  and  body ;  therefore  both  grow  gross  and 
IKMVV.  Shakespeare  says  fat  paunches  make  lean  pates,  but 
this  is  taken  from  a  Greek  proverb.  I  admire  this  family  of 
Cox's  at  Hillingdon,  and  after  casting  my  eyes  in  every  direc- 
tion, and  thinking  much  and  often  of  the  theory  of  happiness, 
I  am  convinced  that  it  is  principally  to  be  found  in  contented 
mediocrity,  accompanied  with  an  equable  temperament  and 
warm  though  not  excitable  feeling.  When  I  read  such  books 
as  Mackintosh's  Life,  and  see  what  other  men  have  done,  how 
they  have  read  and  thought,  a  sort  of  despair  comes  over  me, 
a  deep  and  bitter  sensation  of  regret  "  for  time  misspent  and 
talents  misapplied,"  not  the  less  bitter  from  being  coupled  with 
a  hopelessness  of  remedial  industry  and  of  doing  better  things. 
Nor  do  I  know  that  such  men  as  these  were  happy  ;  that  they 
possessed  sources  of  enjoyment  inaccessible  to  less  gifted 
minds  is  not  to  be  doubted,  but  whether  knowledge  and  con- 
scious ability  and  superiority  generally  bring  with  them  con- 
tent of  mind  and  the  sunshine  of  self-satisfaction  to  the  pos- 
sessors is  any  thing  but  certain.  I  wonder  the  inductive  pro- 
cess has  not  been  more  systematically  applied  to  the  solution 
of  this'great  philosophical  problem,  ichat  is  happiness,  and  in 
what  it  consists,  for  the  practical  purpose  of  directing  the  hu- 
man mind  into  the  right  road  for  reaching  this  goal  of  all  hu- 
man wishes.  Why  are  not  innumerable  instances  collected, 
examined,  analyzed,  and  the  results  expanded,  explained,  and 
reasoned  upon,  for  the  benefit  and  instruction  of  mankind? 
Who  can  tell  but  what  these  results  may  lead  at  last  to  some 
simple  conclusions  such  as  it  requires  no  vast  range  of  intel- 
lect to  discover,  no  subtile  philosophy  to  teach — conclusions 
mortifying  to  the  pride  and  vanity  of  man,  but  calculated  to 
mitigate  the  evils  of  life  by  softening  mutual  asperities,  and 
by  the  establishment  of  the  doctrine  of  humility,  from  which 
:ill  charity,  forbearance,  toleration,  and  benevolence,  must  flow 
as  from  their  source  ?  These  simple  conclusions  may  amount 
to  no  more  than  a  simple  maxim  that  happiness  is  to  be  found 
"in  the  pursuit  of  truth  and  the  practice  of  virtue." 

Semita  certe 
Tranquilla*  per  virtu  tern  patet  unica  vita. 


422  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

The  end  of  the  tenth  Satire  of  Juvenal  (which  is  one  of  the 
finest  sermons  that  ever  was  composed,  and  worth  all  the 
homilies  of  all  the  Fathers  of  the  Church)  teaches  us  what  to 
pray  for — 

Orandum  est  ut  sit  mens  sana  in  corpore  sano. 

Healthy  body,  healthy  appetite,  healthy  feelings,  though  ac- 
companied by  mediocrity  of  talent,  unadorned  with  wit  and 
imagination,  arid  unpolished  by  learning  and  science,  will  out- 
Strip  in  the  race  for  happiness  the  splendid  irregularities  of 
genius  and  the  most  dazzling  successes  cf  ambition.  At  the 
same  time  this  general  view  of  the  probabilities  of  happiness 
must  be  qualiHed  by  the  admission  that  mere  vegetation 
scarcely  deserves  the  name  of  happiness,  and  that  the  highest 
enjoyment  which  humanity  is  capable  of  may  be  said  to  con- 
sist in  the  pleasures  of  reason  and  imagination — of  a  mind  ex- 
patiating among  the  wonders  of  Nature,  and  ranging  through 
all  the  "changes  of  many-colored  life,"  without  being  shaken 
from  its  equilibrium  by  the  disturbing  causes  of  jealousy, 
envy,  and  the  evil  passions  of  our  nature.  The  most  galling 
of  all  conditions  is  that  of  him  whose  conscience  and  con- 
sciousness whisper  to  him  perpetual  reproaches,  who  reflects 
on  what  he  might  have  been  and  who  feels  and  sees  what  he 
is.  When  such  a  man  as  Mackintosh,  fraught  with  all  learn- 
ing, whose  mind,  if  not  kindled  into  a  steady  blaze,  is  .per- 
petually throwing  out  sparks  and  coruscations  of  exceeding 
brightness,  is  stung  with  these  self-upbraidings,  what  must  be 
the  reflections  of  those,  the  utmost  reach  of  whose  industry  is 
far  below  the  value  of  his  most  self-accused  idleness,  who 
have  no  self-consolation,  are  plunged  in  entire  darkness,  and 
have  net  only  to  lament  the  years  of  omission,  but  those  of 
commission,  not  only  the  opportunities  neglected,  but  the 
positive  mischief  done  by  the  debasement  of  the  faculties,  the 
deterioration  of  the  understanding,  the  impairing  of  the  power 
of  exertion  consequent  upon  a  long  devotion  to  low,  despica- 
ble, unprofitable  habits  and  pursuits  ? 

August  27th. — Melbourne  has  thrown  up  the  Tithe  Bill 
in  the  Lords,  because  the  Opposition  expunged  the  appro- 
priation clauses.  In  the  Corporation  Bill  Lyndhurst  made 
still  further  alterations,  such  as  the  Commons  will  not  take 
(the  town  clerks  and  the  exclusion  of  Dissenters  from  the 
disposal  of  ecclesiastical  patronage),  and  as  it  is  the  general 
opinion  that  they  will  make  no  compromise  and  surrendei 


1835.]  STATE   OF  PARTIES.  423 

none  of  their  amendments,  that  Bill  will  probably  be  lost 
too.  What  then  ?  asks  everybody  j  and  nobody  can  tell 
what  then,  but  there  is  a  sort  of  vague  apprehension  that 
something  must  come  of  it,  and  that  this  collision  (for  colli- 
sion it  is)  between  the  Lords  and  the  Commons  will  not  be 
terminated  without  some  violent  measures  or  important 
changes  ;  if  such  do  take  place,  they  will  have  been  most 
wantonly  and  wickedly  brought  about,  but  it  is  a  lamentable 
thing  to  see  the  two  great  parties  in  the  country,  equally 
possessed  of  wealth  and  influence,  and  having  the  same 
interest  in  general  tranquillity,  tearing  each  other  to  pieces 
while  the  Radicals  stand  laughing  and  chuckling  by,  only 
waiting  for  the  proper  moment  to  avail  themselves  of  these 
senseless  divisions.  There  is  something  inconceivable,  a  sort 
of  political  absurdity,  in  the  notion  of  a  country  like  this 
being  on  the  eve  of  a  convulsion,  when  it  is  tranquil,  pros- 
perous, arid  without  any  grievance  ;  universal  liberty  prevails, 
every  man's  property  and  person  are  safe,  the  laws  are  well 
administered  and  duly  obeyed  ;  so  far  from  there  being  any 
unredressed  grievances,  the  imagination  of  man  cannot  devise 
the  fiction  or  semblance  of  a  grievance  without  there  being 
a  rush  to  correct  it.  The  only  real  evil  is  that  the  rage  for 
correction  is  too  violent,  and  sweeps  all  before  it.  What  is 
it,  then,  which  menaces  the  existence  of  the  constitution  we 
live  under  ?  It  is  the  fury  of  parties,  it  is  the  broad  line  of 
separation  which  the  Reform  Bill  has  drawn,  the  antagonist 
positions  into  which  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  have  been 
thrown,  and  the  Whigs  having  identified  themselves  with 
the  democratic  principle  in  one  House,  in  order  to  preserve 
their  places,  and  the  Conservative  principle  having  taken 
refuge  in  the  other  House,  where  it  is  really  endangered  by 
the  obstinate  and  frantic  violence  of  its  supporters.  What 
was  the  loud  and  eternal  cry  of  the  Lords,  and  of  all  the 
Conservatives,  when  the  Reform  Bill  was  in  agitation  ?  That 
it  was  a  revolution,  that  it  would  place  all  political  power 
in  the  hands  of  the  people,  that  it  would  establish  an  irresist- 
ible democratic  force  ;  and  the  great  body  of  them  justified 
their  refusal  to  go  into  Committee  on  the  ground  that  the 
Bill  was  so  vicious  in  principle,  so  irremediably  mischievous, 
that  no  alterations  could  diminish  its  evil  tendency.  It  is 
now  as  clear  as  daylight  that  if  they  had  gone  into  Com- 
mittee and  amended  the  Bill,  they  might  have  obviated 
all  or  nearly  all  the  evils  they  apprehended,  for  even  after 


424  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

the  passing  of  the  "  whole  Bill,"  with  all  its  clauses  perfect 
and  untouched,  parties  are  so  nearly  balanced  that  the 
smallest  difference  would  turn  the  scale  the  other  way.  They 
would,  however,  listen  to  nothing,  and  now  they  feel  the 
consequences  of  their  ruat  codum  policy  ;  but  what  I  com- 
plain of  is,  that  after  the  verification  of  their  predictions, 
and  the  realization  of  their  fears,  in  the  establishment  of  a 
democratic  power  of  formidable  strength,  they  do  not  act 
consistently  with  their  own  declared  opinions  ;  for  if  it  be 
true,  as  they  assert,  that  their  legitimate  authority  and  in- 
fluence have  been  transferred  to  other  hands,  and  that  the 
just  equilibrium  of  the  Constitution  has  been  shaken,  it  is 
mad  and  preposterous  in  them  to  act  just  as  if  no  such  dis- 
turbing causes  had  occurred,  as  if  they  were  still  in  the 
plenitude  of  their  constitutional  power,  and  to  provoke  a 
collision  which,  if  their  own  assertions  be  true,  they  are  no 
longer  in  a  condition  to  sustain.  The  answer  to  such  argu- 
ments as  this  invariably  is,  Are  the  Lords,  then,  to  be  content 
to  yield  every  thing,  and  must  they  pass  every  Bill  which  the 
House  of  Commons  thinks  fit  to  send  to  them  purely  and 
simply  ?  Certainly  they  are  not ;  no  such  thing  is  expected 
of  them  by  any  man  or  any  set  of  men ;  but  common  prudence 
and  a  sense  of  their  own  condition  and  their  own  relative 
strength  under  the  new  dispensation  demand  that  they  should 
exercise  their  undoubted  rights  with  circumspection  and  calm- 
ness, desisting  front  all  opposition  for  opposition's  sake, 
standing  out  firmly  on  questions  involving  great  and  impor- 
tant principles,  and  yielding  with  a  good  grace,  without  ill- 
humor,  and  without  subserviency,  on  minor  points.  They 
ought,  for  example,  to  have  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  Peel 
in  this  Irish  Corporation  Bill,  and  to  have  satisfied  themselves 
with  making  those  amendments  which  he  strove  for  without 
success  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  no  more.  As  it  is,  he 
wholly  disapproves  of  the  course  they  have  taken,  and  so,  I 
believe,  did  the  Duke  of  Wellington  in  the  beginning  of  the 
discussions ;  but  Lyndhurst  took  the  lead  with  the  violent 
party,  overruled  the  Duke,  neglected  Peel,  and  dealt  with  the 
Bill  in  the  slashing  manner  we  have  seen. 

I  was  talking  to  Lord  John  Russell  yesterday  at  Court  on 
this  subject,  and  he  said  that  he  had  no  doubt  Peel  highly 
disapproved  of  their  proceedings,  and  that  it  was  evident  he 
did  not  pretend  to  guide  them  ;  for  one  day  in  the  House  of 
Commons  he  went  over  to  Peel,  and  said  that  he  meant  to  re 


1835.J  SECLUSION  OF  SIR   R.   PEEL.  425 

commit  (or  some  such  thing,  no  matter  what  the  particular 
course  was)  the  Bill  that  night,  and  he  supposed  he  would  not 
object.  Peel  said :  "  Oh,  no  ;  I  don't  object ;  "  and,  as  he  was 
going  away,  Peel  called  him  back  and  said :  "  Remember  I 
speak  only  for  myself ;  I  can  answer  for  no  other  individual 
in  the  House."  He  went  out  of  town  about  a  fortnight  ago, 
has  never  returned,  and  will  not;  his  own  friends  think  he 
ought,  but  it  is  evident  that  he  prefers  to  wash  his  hands  of 
the  matter.  He  knows  well  enough  that  the  Conservatives 
hate  him  in  their  hearts  ;  besides  having  never  cordially  for- 
given him  for  his  conduct  on  the  Catholic  question,  they  are 
indignant  at  his  Liberal  views  and  opinions,  and,  when  they 
adopted  him  as  their  leader,  it  was  in  the  fond  hope  that  he 
would  restore  the  good  old  days  of  Tory  Government,  than 
which  nothing  could  be  further  from  his  thoughts.  John 
Russell  said  of  him  yesterday,  "  That  he  was,  in  fact,  a  great 
lover  of  changes  and  innovations ; "  and  so  he  is.  It  often 
occurs  to  me  that  he  would  not  care  very  much  if  the  House 
of  Lords  did  go  to  the  wall,  and  that,  though  he  is  the  ac- 
knowledged head  of  the  Conservative  party,  he  doesnrt  in  his 
heart  care  much  for  Conservative  principles.  He  may  possibly 
calculate  that  no  change  can  take  place  in  this  country  by 
which  property  will  be  menaced  ;  that  personally  he  is  safe, 
and  politically  his  vast  superiority  in  all  the  requisites  for 
public  life  must,  under  all  possible  circumstances,  make  him 
the  most  eminent  performer  on  the  great  stage.  I  do  not 
know  that  he  has  any  such  thoughts  as  these,  but  it  appears 
to  me  far  from  improbable,  and  the  more  so  from  his  keeping 
aloof  at  this  moment,  and  abstaining  (as  far  as  we  know) 
from  any  attempt  to  restrain  the  indiscretion  and  impetuosity 
of  his  party. 

But,  if,  on  the  one  hand,  the  conduct  of  the  Tories  with 
respect  to  the  Corporation  Bill  has  been  violent  and  rash, 
that  of  the  Government  with  respect  to  the  Tithe  Bill  has 
been  unspeakably  wicked.  I  cannot -recollect  an  instance  of 
GO  complete  a  sacrifice  of  the  interests  of  others,  of  their 
ov;n  principles,  and  of  national  tranquillity,  to  mere  party 
objects,  and  the  more  I  reflect  upon  the  course  they  have 
taken  the  more  profligate  and  disgraceful  it  appears.  These 
Ministers  have  recorded  their  opinion  that  the  question  of 
appropriation  ought  not  to  be  mixed  up  with  that  of  com- 
mutation ;  that  they  are  essentially  distinct,  and  ought  to 
remain  so.  At  the  beginning  of  this  session  the  united 


126  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

Whigs  and  Radicals  considered  only  one  thing — how  to 
drive  Peel  out,  and,  though  they  had  a  choice  of  means  to 
accomplish  this  end,  the  famous  resolution  about  appropria- 
tion was  the  one  which  they  finally  selected  for  the  purpose. 
In  so  doing  they  were  altogether  regardless  of  future  conse- 
quences,1 and  never  stopped  to  calculate  what  would  be  the 
effect  of  saddling  the  measure  of  relief  (in  which  all  parties 
concurred)  with  this  impossible  condition.  Now  how  stands 
the  case  ?  They  declare  that  Ireland  (as  all  the  world  knows) 
is  a  scene  of  disorder  and  bloodshed,  of  which  the  Tithe  sys- 
tem is  the  principal  cause,  and  that  the  Tithe  Bill  will  afford 
an  effectual  remedy  to  the  evil.  It  is,  therefore,  their  impera- 
tive and  paramount  duty,  as  it  ought  to  be  their  earnest  and 
engrossing  desire,  to  secure  the  application  of  their  remedy, 
and,  whether  in  office  or  out  of  office  (with  the  expectation 
and  intention  of  coming  in),  to  take  care  that  nothing  should 
be  mixed  up  with  it  by  which  it  can  be  endangered,  and  that 
it  should  be  proposed  merely  for  what  it  is,  and  not  made 
subservient  to  any  object  but  that  for  which  it  has  been  pro- 
fessedly framed.  Having  committed  the  first  error  of  emplo}"- 
ing  this  resolution  to  drive  out  the  Government,  they  then 
considered  themselves  obliged  to  adopt  it  as  an  integral  part 
of  the  Bill,  and  accordingly  thejr  did  so,  with  a  full  knowledge 
that  by  so  doing  they  should  insure  the  rejection  of  the  Bill 
itself  and  that  Ireland  would  continue  in  the  same  state  of 
anarchy  and  confusion,  only  aggravated  by  the  furious  con- 
tests of  parties  here  and  by  the  failure  of  all  schemes  of  reme- 
dial legislation.  Nothing  can  be  more  certain  than  this,  that 
if  the  state  of  Ireland  had  been  taken  into  consideration  with 
the  simple,  straightforward  view  of  tranquilizing  the  country, 
and  that  no  party  object  had  been  mixed  up  with  it,  the 
fratners  of  the  Tithe  Bill  would  sedulously  have  avoided  intro- 
ducing the  appropriation  clause ;  but  during  the  great  battle 
with  Peel  the  establishment  of  this  principle  (not  only  the 
principle  of  appropriation,  but  that  no  relief  should  be  af- 
forded without  its  recognition)  was  made  the  condition  of 
Radical  support  and  the  bond  of  Radical  connection,  and  hav- 
ing as  the  result  of  this  compact  pledged  the  House  of  Com- 
mons to  the  principle,  they  refuse  to  retrace  their  steps,  and 
offer  the  House  of  Lords  the  alternative  of  its  recognition 

1  The  Whigs  were  not,  probably,  the  Radicals.  O'Connell,  without  doubt, 
had  very  good  reasons  tor  pinning  the  Government  to  this,  and  foresaw  all  the 
consequences  of  the  compact  by  which  he  bound  them. 


1835]  THE   WHIGS'   TITHE   BILL.  427 

(knowing  that  they  cannot  in  sincerity,  honor,  or  conscience, 
recognize  it)  or  that  of  an  irreparable  injury  to  the  Irish 
Church,  which  it  is  the  grand  object  of  the  Lords  to  uphold. 
But  the  question  must  not  be  considered  as  one  merely  affect- 
ing the  interests  of  the  clergy  of  Ireland.  If  that  were  all, 
there  might  be  no  such  great  harm  in  these  proceedings. 
Entertaining  very  strong  (and  as  I  think  very  sound)  opinions 
with  respect  to  the  expediency  cf  dealing  with  its  revenues, 
and  for  purposes  ultimately  to  be  effected  which  the}'  cannot 
yet  venture  to  avow,  they  might  be  justified,  or  think  them- 
selves justified,  in  coping  with  the  difficulties  which  embarrass 
this  question  in  the  best  mode  that  is  open  to  them,  and  deem 
it  better  that  the  Irish  clergy  should  suffer  the  temporary  pri- 
vations they  undergo  than  that  the  final  settlement  of  the 
ecclesiastical  question  should  be  indefinitely  postponed.  But 
they  do  not  pretend  to  be  actuated  by  any  such  considera- 
tions ;  their  declared  object  is  to  restore  peace  to  Ireland,  to 
terminate  the  Tithe  quarrel,  to  raise  the  Protestant  clergy 
from  their  fallen  state,  and  to  assert  the  authority  of  the  law 
by  taking  away  the  inducements  which  now  exist  for  setting 
the  law  at  defiance.  Those  who  undertake  to  govern  the 
country  are  above  all  things  bound  to  see  that  the  laws  are 
obeyed,  and  they  do  not  deserve  the  name  of  a  Government  if 
they  submit  to,  much  less  if  they  connive  at,  a  permanent  state 
of  anarchy  in  any  part  of  the  country.  They  know  that  the 
law  in  Ireland  is  a  dead  letter,  that  neither  to  statute  nor  com- 
mon law  do  the  lower  orders  of  Irish  Catholics  (the  bulk  of 
the  nation)  pay  the  slightest  obedience,  and  that  they  are 
countenanced  and  urged  on  in  their  disobedience  by  those  agi- 
tators with  whom  the  Government  act  in  political  fellowship, 
and  in  deference  to  whom  their  measures  have  been  shaped. 
Granting  that  after  the  adoption  of  the  resolution  by  the  House 
of  Commons  they  were  bound  to  insert  it  in  their  Bill,  what 
justification  is  there  for  their  refusal  to  receive  the  Bill  back 
from  the  Lords  with  no  other  alteration  than  the  omission  of 
the  appropriation  clause  ?  In  so  refusing  they  destroy  their 
own  measure;  they  publish  to  the  world  that  it  is  the  prin- 
ciple of  appropriation,  and  not  the  Tithe  composition,  that 
they  really  care  for;  and  in  thus  strangling  their  own  Bill, 
because  they  cannot  tack  that  principle  on  to  it,  they  make 
themselves  accomplices  of  the  outrages  and  violence  which 
are  perpetrated  in  the  Tithe  warfare,  and  abettors  of  the  regular 
and  systematic  violation  of  the  law.  The  King's  Government 


428  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

exhibits  itself  in  a  conspiracy  with  Catholic  agitators  and 
Protestant  republicans  against  the  clergy  of  the  Established 
Church  and  against  the  laws  of  the  land.  If  they  are  sincere 
in  their  own  statements  and  declarations  they  must  of  ne- 
cessity deem  110  object  commensurate  with  this  in  point  of 
urgency  and  importance  ;  and  what  is  the  object  to  which  this 
is  postponed?  That  of  maintaining  their  own  consistency; 
because  they  turned  the  late  Government  out  on  this  question 
they  must  now  adhere  to  it  with  desperate  tenacity  ;  their  in- 
terests as  a  party  demand  that  they  should ;  O'Cormell  and 
the  Radicals  will  not  forgive  them  if  they  give  it  up.  They 
might  if  they  would  declare  their  unchanged  opinion  in  favor 
of  the  principle  of  appropriation,  and  their  determination  to 
press  the  adoption  of  it  at  all  times  and  by  all  means,  and 
never  to  desist  till  they  had  accomplished  its  recognition,  but 
at  the  same  time  announce  that  the  perilous  state  of  Ireland — 
the  magnitude  of  the  evil  resulting  from  the  Tithe  system — 
would  not  allow  them  to  reject  the  Tithe  Bill  though  denuded 
of  the  appropriation  clauses,  as  all  the  rest  of  its  provisions 
(all  those  by  which  the  Tithe  system  was  to  be  determined) 
had  been  passed  by  the  Lords.  I  cannot  conceive  how  a  con- 
scientious Minister  can  take  upon  himself  the  responsibility 
of  quashing  this  measure,  and  contentedly  look  forward  to  the 
probability — almost  certainty — of  a  fresh  course  of  outrage 
and  disorder,  and  a  new  catalogue  of  miseries  and  privations, 
which  he  all  the  time  believes  it  is  in  his  power  to  avert.  But 
these  Ministers  think  that  they  could  not  avert  these  evils 
(by  accepting  the  Bill)  without  giving  umbrage  to  their  task- 
masters and  allies,  and  they  do  not  scruple  to  sacrifice  the 
mighty  interests  at  stake  in  Ireland  to  the  paltry  and  epheme- 
ral interests  of  their  party — interests  which  cannot  outlive  the 
present  hour  and  party,  which  the  slightest  change  in  the 
political  atmosphere  may  sweep  away  in  an  instant.  There  is 
also  another  reason  by  which  they  are  determined :  they  can- 
not face  the  accusation  of  inconsistency — the  question  that 
would  be  put,  Why  did  you  turn  out  Peel's  Government  ? 
You  turned  him  out  on  this  very  principle  which  you  are  now 
ready  to  abandon.  There  is  no  doubt  that  this  question  would 
be  put  with  a  very  triumphant  air  by  their  opponents,  but 
they  might  easily  answer  it,  without  admitting  in  so  many 
words — what  everybody  well  knows  without  any  admission — 
that  the  resolution  was  brought  forward  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  turning  Peel  out.  They  might  say  that  they  moved 


1635.]  ALTERCATION   IN   THE   HOUSE   OF   LORDS.  439 

that  resolution  because  it  is  a  principle  that  they  wished  to  es- 
tablish, and  that  they  still  think  ought  to  be  established  ;  that 
Peel's  resignation  on  that  particular  question  was  of  his  own 
choice,  and  that  if  they  are  not  irrevocably  bound  by  the 
resolution  itself,  they  are  not  the  more  bound  by  that  circum- 
stance ;  that  they  sent  the  Bill  to  the  House  of  Lords  in  what 
they  consider  the  best  form,  but  that  after  the  Lords  had 
agreed  to  the  whole  measure,  with  the  exception  of  the  ap- 
propriation clauses,  it  was  their  duty  to  take  the  matter  again 
into  their  serious  consideration,  and  to  determine  whether  it 
was  on  the  whole  more  advantageous  to  Ireland  and  to  the 
Empire  that  the  Bill  should  be  rejected  (with  all  the  conse- 
quences of  its  rejection  apparent)  or  that  it  should  be  passed 
without  these  clauses.  There  was  no  necessity  for  their 
abandonment  of  any  opinion  or  principle,  nor  any  obstacle  to 
the  appropriation  clauses  being  brought  forward  again  and 
again  in  a  substantive  independent  shape.  Besides  this  it  is 
not  pretended  that  these  clauses  were  to  produce  any  im- 
mediate, perhaps  not  even  any  remote,  effect,  and  they  not 
only  acknowledge  that  the  state  of  Ireland  calls  for  an  imme- 
diate remedy,  but  they  assert  that  unless  the  remedy  is  ap- 
plied without  loss  of  time  it  will  come  too  late  ;  that  the  Tithe 
Bill  which  this  year  would  accomplish  its  object,  will  in  all 
probability  next  year  be  wholly  inoperative.  To  my  mind 
this  reasoning  is  so  conclusive  that  I  can  come  to  no  other 
than  the  harsh  judgment  which  I  have  passed  upon  their  con- 
duct, and  I  think  I  have  made  good  my  charges  against  both 
\Vhi<rs  and  Tories. 

August  29th. — The  House  of  Lords  has  become  a  bear- 
garden since  Brougham  has  been  in  it;  there  is  no  night  that 
is  not  distinguished  by  some  violent  squabble  between  him 
and  the  Tories.  Lord  Winchelsea  directly  accused  him  of 
cowardice  the  night  before  last,  to  which  he  replied,  "  As  to 
my  being  afraid  to  say  elsewhere  what  I  say  here,  oh,  that  is 
too  absurd  to  require  an  answer."  It  is  nevertheless  true. 
Melbourne  does  very  well ;  hia  memory  served  him  happily  on 
this  night.  Brougham  had  lashed  the  Lords  into  a  fury  by 
calling  them  a  mob,  and  Melbourne  quoted  Lord  Chesterfield, 
who  said  that  all  deliberative  assemblies  were  mobs.  The 
other  day  Lord  Howick  was  inveighing  passionately  against 
the  Lords  for  their  mutilations  of  the  Corporation  Bill,  when 
Melbourne  said,  with  his  characteristic  nonchalance,  "  Why, 
what  does  it  matter?  We  have  gone  on  tolerably  well  for 


430  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   FV.  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

500  years  with  these  corporations,  and  we  may  contrive  to  gc 
on  with  them  for  another  year  or  so." 

On  the  King's  birthday  his  Majesty  had  Lord  Lansdowne 
and  Lord  Melbourne  to  dine  with  him  at  Windsor,  and  he 
made  some  extraordinary  speeches,  of  which  various  versions 
are  about  the  town.  By-the-by,  I  was  turning  over  the 
"Annual  Register"  the  other  day,  and  hit  upon  his  speech 
last  year  to  the  bishops,  and  I  was  astonished  at  the  eloquence 
of  it.  It  is  said  that  Phillpotts  composed  it  for  him,  but  there 
are  some  internal  marks  of  its  emanating  from  himself.  It  is 
certainly  remarkably  good  of  the  kind,  and  I  think  it  more 
probable  that  he  spoke  what  he  thought  and  felt,  and  that 
Phillpotts  reported  it  and  made  the  best  of  it. 

September  1st. — Lord  John  Russell  assembled  his  Whigs 
and  Radicals  at  the  Foreign  Office  yesterday  morning,  and 
announced  to  them  the  course  he  proposed  to  adopt  with 
regard  to  the  Corporation  Bill,  the  amendments  he  would 
accept,  those  he  would  modify,  and  those  he  would  decline. 
Hume  made  a  violent  speech,  deprecating  any  concessions,  but 
O'Connell  made  a  very  moderate  one,  recommending  a  com- 
promise, and  saying  that  great  alarm  prevailed  among  many 
well-meaning  and  conscientious  persons  lest  Reform  should 
proceed  too  far;  that  it  was  highly  expedient  to  quiet  these 
apprehensions,  and  upon  every  account  therefore  he  recom- 
mended a  moderate  and  conciliatory  course.  There  were 
between  two  and  three  hundred  present  at  this  meeting. 
Accordingly  in  the  afternoon  John  Russell  stated  over  again 
in  the  House  of  Commons  pretty  much  what  he  had  said  in 
the  morning,  and  made  a  very  temperate  and  conciliatory 
speech.  Peel,  who-had  arrived  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  in 
town,1  rose  after  him,  and,  as  everybody  said  (some  with  joy, 
others  with  rage),  "  threw  over  the  Lords."  He  declared  his 
concurrence  in  those  amendments  which  John  Russell  agreed 
to,  and  his  acquiescence  in  most  of  the  other  provisions  with- 
out the  amendments  of  the  Lords ;  to  the  aldermen  for  life  he 
objected,  and  to  some  other  particulars,  as  his  speech  shows. 
The  only  amendment  to  which  he  subscribed  (and  that  was 
objected  to  by  Government)  was  the  exclusion  of  Dissenters 
from  the  disposal  of  Church  patronage,  and  I  was  very  much 

1  [Peel  gave  no  notice  of  his  intention  to  come  to  town.  Hardinge,  who  is 
more  intimate  with  him  than  most  of  his  political  associates,  was  so  sure  ho 
would  not  come  that  he  told  Bradshaw,  who  asked  him,  that  he  certainly 
•would  not  be  here,  and  that  he  (Bradshaw)  might  go  into  the  country  when  he 
pleased.] 


1835.]  PEEL'S   CONCILIATORY   CONDUCT.  431 

surprised  to  hear  him  stand  out  for  this  upon  (as  I  think)  very 
insufficient  grounds.  Nothing  could  exceed  the  dismay  and 
ths  rage  (though  suppressed)  of  the  Conservatives  at  his 
speech.  He  was  not  a  bit  cheered  by  those  behind  him,  but 
very  heartily  by  those  opposite.  One  silly,  noisy  fellow, 
whose  principal  vocation  in  the  House  of  Commons  is  to 
bellow,  came  near  me  under  the  gallery,  and  I  asked  him  why 
they  did  not  cheer,  when  he  sulkily  answered,  "  he  was  so 
well  cheered  by  the  other  side  that  it  was  not  necessary." 
Lord  Harrowby  was  under  the  gallery.  I  asked  him  what  he 
said  to  Peel's  speech.  "  I  did  not  hear  it,"  he  tartly  replied, 
"  but  he  seems  to  have  given  up  the  aldermen.  I  have  a 
great  affection  for  the  aldermen."  At  the  "  Travelers  "  I  met 
Strangford,  and  asked  him  the  same  question.  He  said,  "  I 
say,  Not  content."  "  But,"  said  I,  "  you  must  take  the  Bill." 
"  Not  I,  for  one ;  the  Lords  cannot  take  it,  and  if  ure  are  to 
be  ruined  I  think  we  had  better  be  ruined  by  real  Radicals 
than  by  sham  Tories."  Afterward  I  saw  Lord  Londonderry, 
who  talked  in  the  same  strain,  not  denying  that  the  Duke  of 
Wellington  had  unwillingly  come  into  the  measures  which 
Lyndhurst  had  adopted,  but  talking  of  Lyndhurst's  Conserva- 
tive scruples  as  a  constitutional  lawyer,  and  such  stuff  as  this. 
The  manner  in  which  the  Duke  has  been  ousted  from  the 
leadership,  and  the  alacrity  with  which  the  Lords  have  fol- 
lowed Lyndhurst,  because  he  led  them  into  violent  courses,  is 
not  the  least  curious  part  of  this  business.  (It  seems  they 
only  meant  to  make  Lyndhurst  their  leader  pro  hac  vice.} 

Bingham  Baring  and  I  walked  away  together,  and  I  went 
with  him  to  Lord  Ash  burton's  house,  who  was  not  a  little 
astonished  at  what  we  told  him,  and  asserted  that  Peel  was 
quite  wrong  about  the  aldermen.  The  violent  Whigs  were 
rather  provoked  at  the  turn  things  took,  and  Howick,  whom 
I  saw  under  the  gallery,  said  with  great  bitterness  (mixed 
with  pleasure  "at  Peel's  abandonment  of  the  Lords)  that  he, 
for  one,  "  only  consented  to  these  alterations,  which  made 
the  Bill  so  much  worse,  with  a  view  to  obtain  future  com- 
pensation, and  with  interest"  The  English  Radicals  were 
very  indignant,  and  Hume,  Grote,  and  Roebuck,  spoke  one 
after  another  against  the  Government  concessions,  but  there 
was  no  disposition  to  listen  to  them,  and  an  evident  satisfac- 
tion at  the  prospect  of  an  amicable  termination  of  the  rising 
dispute.  Nobody  apprehends  any  other  termination,  for 
though  the  Lords  will  bluster,  and  fume,  and  fret,  and  there 


432  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM  IV.  [CaAp.  XXIX. 

will  be  no  small  fermentation  of  mortified  pride  and  vanity, 
there  must  be  some  difference  of  opinion  at  least,  and  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  is  quite  sure  to  exert  his  influence  to 
bring  the  majority  to  adopt  Peel's  views.  It  has  always  been 
considered  by  the  Tories  an  object  of  paramount  importance 
to  keep  their  party  together  (this  was  the  pretext  of  Wharn- 
cliffe  and  Harrowby  for  joining  in  that  fatal  postponement  of 
Schedule  A),  and  if  after  Peel's  speech  they  were  to  refuse 
to  accept  the  fair  compromise  which  is  tendered  to  them,  it 
is  impossible  to  suppose  that  he  would  consider  himself  as 
belonging  to  them,  or  that  they  could  pretend  to  acknowledge 
him  as  their  leader,  and  the  Tory  party  would  by  this  schism 
be  effectually  broken  up. 

I  have  long  considered  the  breaking  up  of  the  Tory  party 
as  a  grand  desideratum,  and  though  I  earnestly  desire  to  see 
a  powerful  Conservative  party  in  the  country  and  in  Parlia- 
ment, it  must  be  one  reconstructed  out  of  materials  more 
various  and  more  Liberal  than  that  which  now  calls  itself 
Conservative,  but  which  in  its  heart  clings  to  the  narrow  no- 
tions and  loves  the  exclusive  system  of  by-gone  days.  The 
dissolution  of  the  Tory  party  in  the  House  of  Lords,  by  a  di- 
vision of  them  into  a  high  and  a  low  section,  would  in  itself 
be  a  reform  of  that  House,  and  it  is  to  such  a  dissolution  and 
fresh  modification  of  parties  that  we  must  look  for  a  reform, 
which  without  any  violent  change  will  redress  the  balance  and 
enable  the  machine  of  government  to  move  without  obstruc- 
tion. I  sat  next  to  Senior  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  he  was 
talking  of  the  necessity  of  a  reform  of  the  House  of  Peers, 
and  he  said,  "  I  can  see  the  steps  of  it  very  plainly."  "  What, 
by  making  Peers  for  life,  as  you  suggest  in  your  pamphlet  ?  " 
"  No,  it  is  too  late  for  that  now,  but  by  the  election  of  repre- 
sentatives. When  Scotland  was  united  she  sent  represent- 
ative Peers  elected  from  the  body;  Ireland  the  same.  Now 
fifty  years  of  Tory  rule  have  given  such  a  preponderance  to 
the  Tory  interest  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that  the  balance 
cannot  be  redressed  but  by  a  creation  which  would  make  the 
House  of  Peers  too  numerous  for  a  legislative  assembly.  I 
would  therefore  begin  by  creating,  in  order  to  equalize  the 
strength  of  the  opposite  parties,  and  then  the  Peers  should 
elect  representatives."  I  said,  "  All  this  will  be  unnecessary, 
for  the  Tory  party  will  be  broken  up,  and  without  a  change 
so  startling  and  extensive  the  balance  will  be  quietly  redressed, 
and  in  the  natural  order  of  things."  The  Due  de  Nemours 


1835.]  RECONCILIATION.  433 

was  under  the  gallery  in  the  House  of  Commons,  but  he  soon 
went  away,  and  in  the  middle  of  Peel's  speech. 

September  3d. — Nothing  could  be  better  than  the  temper 
and  disposition  of  the  House  on  Tuesday  night,  as  well  as  on 
Monday,  nothing  more  flattering  to  Peel.  John  Russell  said 
"  he  was  anxious  that  the  clause  (I  forget  which)  should 
go  forth  with  the  sanction  of  the  right  honorable  baronet's 
approbation."  Peel  said  he  spoke  only  for  himself;  Lore! 
John  said  that  made  no  difference,  indicating  in  fact  that  his 
opinion  was  worth  more  than  those  of  all  his  followers  put 
together.  The  Lords  in  the  mean  time  are  tremendously 
sulky,  and  though  it  is  impossible  to  believe  they  will  have  the 
frantic  folly  to  refuse  the  accommodation  that  by  God's  meny 
is  offered  to  them,  it  is  not  quite  safe  and  they  are  now  in 
grand  conclave  at  Apsley  House  to  determine  upon  their 
course.  Lord  Lansdowne  told  me  at  court  yesterday  that  the 
day  before  he  went  up  to  Lyndhurst  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
to  speak  to  him  about  some  Bill,  when  Lyndhurst  said,  "  I 
was  in  hopes  you  were  coming  to  speak  to  me  about  the 
amendments."  "  No ;  it  will  be  time  enough  to  talk  about 
them  when  they  are  again  before  the  House."  "  Well,  and 
what  do  they  say  now  ?  "  They  say  that  the  lives  of  your 
aldermen  are  not  at  a  premium."  "  Do  they  ?  But  they 
will  rise  in  the  market  to-morrow,  I  can  tell  you."  What 
satisfies  me  most  in  all  this  is  the  conduct  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  even  that  of  many  of  the  Radicals — of  Hume,  for 
instance — and  the  general  temper  and  disposition  evinced  by 
the  House,  symptomatic  of  a  more  healthy  feeling  than  I 
ever  expected  to  see  displayed.  In  the  division  the  Radical 
numbers  were  contemptible,  showing  that  the  Conservative 
interest,  if  not  broken  up  by  party  divisions,  and  if  ever  it 
was  roused  and  connected  by  the  acknowledgment  of  a  com- 
mon danger,  would  crush  the  Radical  force  in  an  instant. 
These  are  valuable  manifestations,  and  worth  a  hundred 
clauses  in  the  Corporation  Bill ;  for  what  matters  it  whether 
aldermen  and  town  clerks  are  perpetuated  or  suppressed? 
and  it  really  is  grotesque  to  fight  for  these  puerilities  as  if 
it  was  a  contest  pro  aris  et  focis,  and  to  hesitate  one  instant 
whether  a  collision  should  be  provoked  between  the  two 
Houses  of  Parliament,  and  the  advantages  both  direct  and 
collateral  flowing  from  Peel's  mediation  be  thrown  away 
for  the  sake  of  maintaining  these  secondary  and  questionable 
objects. 

41 


134  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

September  Qth. — On  Thursday  there  was  a  great  meeting 
ut  Apsley  House ;  eighty  Peers  present,  and  four  hours'  de- 
liberation. They  kept  their  resolutions  a  profound  secret, 
hut  as  I  knew  what  they  were  on  Friday  morning,  I  went 
to  Melbourne  and  told  him,  in  order  that  the  Government 
might  be  prepared,  and  turn  over  in  their  minds  how  matters 
might  be  accommodated.  The  Tories  adhered  to  the  justices 
and  wards,  and  abandoned  the  rest.  I  found  Melbourne  and 
Lord  John  together ;  the  latter  said  there  would  be  no  diffi- 
culty about  the  justices,  but  the  amendment  about  the  wards 
was  impossible. 

The  debate  at  night  was  carried  on  with  extraordinary 
temper  and  calmness ;  Brougham  complimented  Lyndhurst 
in  very  glowing  terms.  The  matter  now  stands  over  till 
Monday,  when  the  Commons  must  determine  whether  to 
accept  the  Bill  with  these  alterations  or  reject  it  on  account 
of  them.  There  is  great  division  of  opinion  as  to  the 
result,  but  I  cannot  bring  myself  to  believe  that  they  will 
let  the  Bill  drop  for  such  trifles.  I  asked  Wharnclifle  last 
night  to  explain  to  me  in  what  manner  these  things  would 
operate  politically,  and  he  owned  that  he  thought  their 
political  importance  was  greatly  overrated,  but  that  the 
division  proposed  by  Government  gave  greater  influence  to 
numbers,  while  that  substituted  by  the  Peers  gave  more  to 
property,  and  that  the  constitution  of  the  town  councils, 
whether  they  were  more  or  less  Radical  or  Conservative,  would 
have  a  political  effect  in  this  way :  that  in  every  borough  little 
democracies  would  be  established,  which  would  lie  con- 
tinually exercising  a  democratic  influence  and  extending 
democratic  principles,  and  that  the  greater  the  infusion  of 
Conservative  interest  you  could  make  in  these  new  bodies 
the  more  that  tendency  would  be  counteracted.  In  my 
opinion  a  fallacy  lurks  under  this  argument ;  they  assume 
the  certain  democratic,  even  revolutionary,  character  of  the 
new  town  councils  without  any  sufficient  reason,  but  if  this 
be  so,  and  if  the}'  are  correct  in  their  anticipations,  I  doubt 
whether  the  guards  and  drawbacks  with  which  they  are 
endeavoring  to  counteract  the  pernicious  influence  they 
dread  will  be  found  efficacious.  I  do  not  despair  of  the 
prevalence  of  sound  Conservative  principles  upon  a  Liberal 
basis,  and  it  appears  to  me  that  the  Peers  have  committed 
a  great  blunder  in  expressing  such  violent  suspicion  and 
distrust  of  the  new  corporations  ;  that  nothing  is  so  likelv 


1835.]  EFFECTS    OF   MUNICIPAL  REFORM.  435 

to  make  them  Radical  as  to  insist  that  they  must  and  will  be 
so,  or  to  render  them  inimical  to  the  aristocracy  and  to  aristo- 
cratic institutions  as  to  exhibit  a  violent  hostility  on  the  part 
of  the  aristocracy  toward  them.  I  apply  this  observation 
generally  to  their  way  of  dealing  with  the  question  rather  than 
to  the  particular  words  of  the  disputed  clause,  which  is  prob- 
ably on  the  whole  fairer  and  better  as  the  Peers  amended  it 
than  as  the  Commons  framed  it,  so  much  so  that  I  do  not 
understand  the  tenacity  with  which  the  Government  cling 
to  it.  One  thing  is  very  clear,  that  neither  for  this  nor  for 
the  justices  clause  is  it  worth  while  (to  either  party)  that  the 
prevailing  harmony  should  be  broken  and  the  Bill  be  lost.  If . 
both  parties  were  sincerely  desirous  of  an  accommodation, 
and  there  was  any  common  interest,  any  common  ground  on 
which  they  could  meet,  there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  an  ad- 
justment ;  but  this  is  not  the  case.  Not  only  are  the  interests 
and  wishes  of  the  two  parties  at  variance,  but  the  desires  of 
the  moderate  and  the  violent  in  each  party  are  so  too.  The 
moderate  in  both  probably  do  wish  for  an  accommodation. 
The  Bill  is  the  Bill  of  the  Whigs,  and  with  all  the  amend- 
ments, it  does,  in  point  of  fact,  accomplish  their  object, 
though  not,  as  Lyndhurst  said,  so  completely  as  without 
them.  They  wish  the  Bill  to  pass,  therefore,  but  the  Tories 
detest  the  Bill  even  as  it  is,  and  it  is  no  concern  of  theirs 
quoad  Bill  that  it  should  pass  ;  on  the  contrary,  they  would 
rejoice  at  its  failure,  but  its  failure  would  place  the  two 
Houses  in  a  state  of  collision,  and  though  each  party  would 
throw  the  blame  on  the  other  (on  very  plausible  grounds 
either  way),  it  is  more  the  interest  of  the  Lords  than  of  the 
Commons*to  avert  this,  because  the  danger  of  collision  attaches 
exclusively  to  the  Lords.  The  violent  of  the  Commons  would 
rather  like  it  ;  the  violent  of  the  Lords  would  doggedly  en- 
counter it.  There  are  many  who  desire  that  the  dispute 
should  not  be  settled,  in  order  to  push  matters  to  extremities 
and  involve  the  House  in  a  contest,  in  order  to  extirpate 
the  House  of  Lords.  What  renders  it  more  desirable  on 
account  of  the  Lords  that  the  Bill  should  not  be  lost,  and 
a  cry  got  up  against  them,  is  the  circumstance  of  their 
having  thrown  out  so  many  other  Bills,  and  some  on  very 
unjustifiable  grounds — the  Dublin  Police  Bill,  for  example. 
Not  a  word  was  said  against  its  merits  ;  on  the  contrary,  it 
was  not  denied  that  the  case  was  urgent,  and  it  was  only 
thrown  out  because  the  Lord  Mayor  and  Corporation  of 


i36  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

Dublin  had  not  been  consulted.  Now  it  might  have  been 
very  proper  to  consult  these  functionaries  ;  it  may  even  be 
a  culpable  omission  to  have  neglected  them  ;  but  this  is  not 
a  time,  nor  is  the  House  of  Lords  in  circumstances,  to  be  so 
fastidious  and  to  stickle  for  such  formalities.  Their  charac- 
ter with  the  nation  is  at  stake,  and  it  is  of  far  greater  con- 
sequence that  they  should  do  nothing  calculated  to  throw 
suspicion  on  their  motives,  or  odium  on  .their  proceedings, 
than  to  provide  for  a  punctilious  observance  of  respect  and 
deference  to  the  Dublin  Corporation.  They  seem  to  me  to 
have  made  a  great  mistake  in  throwing  out  this  Bill,  and 
•I  am  much  deceived  if  they  do  not  hear  more  of  it  hereafter. 

September  8th. — Lord  John  called  another  meeting  at  the 
Foreign  Office  yesterday  morning,  when  he  proposed,  and 
they  agreed  to  take  the  Lords'  amendments  and  finish  the 
business  ;  so  this  famous  Corporation  Bill  has  got  throxigh 
at  last.  O'Connell  and  Warbuton  concurred  in  accepting 
it.  The  only  man  who  violently  opposed  its  being  accepted 
was  Tom  Duncombe,  who  made  a  furious  harangue,  and 
boldly  asserted  that  he  knew  to  a  positive  certainty  that  if 
the  Commons  would  hold  out,  the  Peers  would  abandon  the 
justices  and  wards,  and  he  offered  privately  to  give  John 
Russell  a  list  of  Peers  sufficient  to  carry  this,  and  who,  he 
would  Answer  for  it,  were  ready  to  make  the  concession. 
Lord  John,  however,  was  too  wise  to  listen  to  such  impudent 
nonsense,  and,  though  very  reluctantly,  it  was  settled  that 
the  Commons  should  give  way.  Both  parties  probably  over- 
rate the  value  of  the  disputed  clauses,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted 
that  the  two  Houses  will  not  part  amicably.  Government 
takes  the  Bill  under  a  sort  of  engag-ement  to  consider  it  as 
an  installment,  and  that  they  shall  try  and  get  the  difference 
next  year.  This  is  mere  humbug,  and  a  poor  sop  -thrown 
to  the  Radicals,  but  as  it  answers  the  immediate  purpose  it 
is  very  well. 

September  Qth. — To-day  at  Court,  when  his  Majesty  made 
one  of  his  most  extraordinary  harangues,  and  much  more 
lengthy  than  usual.  It  was  evidently  got  up  with  great  care 
and  previous  determination.  The  last  article  on  the  Council 
list  was  one  for  the  reduction  of  the  militia,  and  it  was  upon 
this  that  he  descanted  with  great  vehemence.  He  gave  an  his- 
torical account  of  the  militia  from  the  year  1756,  when  he 
said  it  was  increased  against  the  inclination  of  George  II., 
who  was  not  so  well  acquainted  with  the  country  as  his 


1835.]  THE  KING'S  HARANGUE  ON  THE  MILITIA.  437 

successors  have  been,  "  when  there  was  a  Whig  Adminis- 
tration, as  there  is  now."  He  declared  his  conviction  that 
the  safety  of  the  country  demanded  a  numerous  and  effective 
militia,  that  nothing  should  have  induced  him  to  consent  to 
the  present  reduction  but  the  necessity  of  making  some 
changes  which  had  become  indispensable  owing  to  the  culpa- 
ble conduct  of  colonels  of  the  militia  who  had  neglected 
their  duty,  but  whose  names  he  would  not  expose ;  that 
agitators  in  Ireland  and  political  economists  here  wished  to 
reduce  this  force,  in  order,  under  the  pretext  of  economy,  to 
leave  the  country  defenseless ;  but  he  never  would  consent 
to  this,  and  only  agreed  to  the  present  measure  upon  a  clear 
understanding  that  early  in  the  next  session  the  matter  was 
to  be  brought  forward  in  Parliament  with  a  view  to  render 
the  militia  more  efficient ;  that  nothing  but  the  militia 
justified  the  smallness  of  our  military  establishments  as 
compared  with  those  of  other  nations ;  and  he  finished  by 
saying  that  the  state  of  our  relations  with  Russia  made  the 
maintenance  of  this  force  of  paramount  importance,  as  it 
was  impossible  to  say  what  dangers  we  might  not  be  menaced 
with  from  that  quarter,  or  how  soon  we  might  be  called 
upon  to  face  them,  and  that  the  advisers  of  the  Crown  would 
incur  a  deep  responsibility  if  any  mischief  arose  from  the 
undue  reduction  of  this  force.  He  ended  a  very  long  speech 
(of  which  I  can  only  put  down  an  outline)  with  this  strange 
denunciation  against  Russia,  and  then  said  :  "  One  word -more. 
I  have  spoken  thus  in  the  presence  of  many  Lords  who  are 
connected  with  the  militia,  either  immediately  or  through 
their  friends,  because  I  wish  that  my  sentiments  should 
be  thoroughly  and  extensively  promulgated."  This  is  a  very 
brief  outline  of  his  oration,  which  was  delivered  with  great 
energy. 

At  the  levee  I  had  some  talk  with  Hobhouse,  who  ex- 
pressed himself  well  satisfied  with  the  termination  of  the  Cor- 
poration contest ;  he  said  that  the  King  was  delighted,  and 
added  (in  which  I  think  he  flatters  himself)  that  he  was  in 
high  good-humor  in  consequence,  and  that  though  he  dis- 
liked them  politically,  he  liked  them  very  well  personally, 
and  that  if  the  Irish  Church  question  could  be  arranged,  he 
would  be  quite  content  with  them,  and  they  should  be  excel- 
lent friends. 

Lord  Howick,  who  is  the  bitterest  of  all  that  party,  and 
expresses  himself  with  astonishing  acrimony,  talked  in  his 


438  REIGN  OF    WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

usual  strain,  and  I  could  not  refrain  from  giving1  him  a  bit 
of  my  mind.  He  talked  of  "  the  Lords  having  played  their 
last  trump,"  of  "  the  impossibility  of  their  going  on,  of  the 
hostility  toward  them  in  the  country,  and  the  manner  in 
which  suggestions  of  reforming  the  House  of  Lords  were 
received  in  the  House  of  Commons,"  and  expressed  his  con- 
viction that  "  that  House,  as  an  institution,  was  in  imminent 
danger."  I  told  him  I  did  not  believe  that  such  sentiments 
pervaded  the  country,  that  I  had  not  yet  seen  sufficient  evi- 
dence of  it,  and  asked  if  such  a  spirit  really  was  in  activity, 
did  he  not  think  he  was  bound  to  set  about  resisting  and 
counteracting  it?  He  talked  of  "  its  not  being  resistible  ;  "  he 
said  that  "  the  Lords  must  give  way  or  a  collision  would  be 
the  consequence,"  and  "  he  knew  who  would  go  to  the  wall." 
I  said  that  "  it  was  such  sentiments  as  those,  uttered  by  such 
men  as  himself,  which  most  contributed  to  create  the  danger 
the  existence  of  which  he  deplored."  To  this  he  made  no 
answer ;  but  who  can  feel  secure  when  a  Minister  of  the 
Crown,  in  the  palace  of  the  King,  within  three  yards  of  his 
person,  while  he  is  there  present  exercising  the  functions  of 
royalty,  holds  language  the  most  revolutionary,  and  such  as 
might  more  naturallj'  be  uttered  at  some  low  meeting  in  St. 
Giles's  or  St.  Pancras'  than  in  such  a  place  ?  In  spite  of  my 
disposition  to  be  sanguine,  it  is  impossible  to  shake  off  all 
alarm  when  I  hear  the  opinions  of  men  of  different  parties 
(opinions  founded  on  different  data  and  biased  by  opposite 
wishes)  meeting  at  the  same  point,  and  arriving  by  different 
roads  at  the  same  conclusion. 

Lyndhurst  (who  called  on  me  the  day  before  yesterday 
about  some  business)  talked  over  the  Corporation  Bill,  which 
he  considers  to  be  nearly  as  important  as  the  Reform  Bill. 
He  says  it  must  give  them  all  the  corporate  boroughs,  for  he 
assumes  as  an  undoubted  fact  that  the  new  councils  will  be 
Radical,  and  that  their  influence  will  radicalize  the  boroughs. 
He  said  there  was  no  chance  of  the  House  of  Lords  surviving 
ten  years,  that  power  must  reside  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
as  it  always  had,  and  that  the  House  of  Commons  would  not 
endure  the  independent  authority  of  the  other  House ;  so  that 
Howick  and  Lyndhurst  are  not  far  apart  in  their  calculations. 
It  is  certainly  true,  what  Lyndhurst  said  to  me  the  other  day 
in  George  Street,  that  "they  know  the  Bill  accomplishes 
their  purpose."  Melbourne  said  to  me  at  Court  that  "  it  was 
a  great  bouleversement,  a  great  experiment,  and  we  must  see 


1835]  THE   KING   AND  THE   DUCHESS  OF  KENT.  439 

how  it  worked."  I  met  him  in  St.  James's  Park  afterward, 
and  walked  with  him  to  the  Palace.  He  told  me  the  King 
was  in  a  state  of  great  excitement,  especially  about  this 
militia  question,  but  that  the  thing  which  affected  him  most 
was  the  conduct  of  the  Duchess  of  Kent — her  popularity- 
hunting,  her  progresses,  and  above  all  the  addresses  which 
she  received  and  replied  to.  He  told  me  what  the  King  had 
said  at  dinner  on  his  birthday  about  her.  "I  cannot  expect 
to  live  very  long,  but  I  hope  that  my  successor  may  be  of  full 
age  when  she  mounts  the  throne.  I  have  great  respect  for 
the  person  upon  whom,  in  the  event  of  rny  death,  the  Regency 
would  devolve,  but  I  have  great  distrust  of  the  persons  by 
whom  she  is  surrounded.  I  know  that  every  thing  which  falls 
from  my  lips  is  reported  again,  and  I  say  this  thus  candidly 
and  publicly  because  it  is  my  desire  and  intention  that  these 
my  sentiments  should  be  made  known."  Melbourne  told  me 
that  he  believed  Lord  Durham  is  not  in  favor  with  the  Duchess 
of  Kent,  who  has  discovered  that  he  had  made  use  of  her  for 
his  own  ends,  and  she  has  now  withdrawn  her  confidence  from 
him.  I  asked  him  who  her  confidants  were,  but  he  either  did 
not  know  or  would  not  tell  me. 

Doncaster,  September  loth. — Left  London  on  Saturday 
morning  with  Matuscewitz ;  I  had  a~  good  deal  of  conversation 
with  him  about  the  state  and  prospects  of  this  country,  in  the 
course  of  which  he  told  me  that  Louis  Philippe  had  consulted 
Talleyrand  about  the  maintenance  of  his  intimate  connection 
with  England,  and  that  Talleyrand  had  replied :  "  When  you 
came  to  the  throne  four  years  ago,  I  advised  you  to  cultivate 
your  relations  with  England  as  the  best  security  you  could 
obtain.  I  now  advise  you  to  relinquish  that  connection,  for 
in  the  present  state  of  English  politics  it  can  only  be  produc- 
tive of  danger  or  embarrassment  to  you."  Having  omitted  to 
put  it  down  at  the  time,  I  can't  recollect  the  exact  words,  but 
this  was  the  sense,  and  I  think  Matuscewitz  said  that  Louis 
Pbilippe  had  told  him  this  himself. 

We  dined  at  Burghley  on  the  way,  and  got  here  at  two  on 
Sunday;  read  Mackintosh's  Life  in  the  carriage,  which  made 
me  dreadfully  disgusted  with  my  racing  mbtier.  What  a  life 
as  compared  with  mine  1 — passed  among  great  and  wise  men, 
and  intent  on  high  thoughts  and  honorable  aspirations, 
existing  amid  interests  far  more  pungent  even  than  those 
which  engage  me,  and  of  the  futility,  of  which  I  am  forever 
reminded.  I  am  struck  with  the  coincidence  of  the  tastes 


440  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

and  dispositions  of  Burke  and  Mackintosh,  and  of  something 
in  the  mind  of  the  one  which  bears  an  affinity  to  that  of  the 
other ;  but  their  characters — how  different !  their  abilities — 
how  unequal !  yet  both,  how  superior,  even  the  weakest  of 
the  two,  to  almost  all  other  men,  and  the  success  of  each  so 
little  corresponding1  with  his  powers,  neither  having  ever 
attained  any  object  of  ambition  beyond  that  of  fame.  All 
their  talents,  therefore,  and  all  their  requirements,  did  not 
procure  them  content,  and  probably  Burke  was  a  very  unhappy, 
and  Mackintosh  not  a  very  happy,  man.  The  suavity,  the  in- 
dolent temperament,  the  "mitis  sapientia"  of  Mackintosh  may 
have  warded  off  sorrow  and  mitigated  disappointment,  but  the 
stern  and  vindictive  energies  of  Burke  must  have  kept  up  a 
storm  of  conflicting  passions  in  his  breast.  But  I  turn  from 
Mackintosh  and  Burke  to  all  that  is  vilest  and  foolishest  on 
earth,  and  among  such  I  now  pass  my  unprofitable  hours. 
There  seems  to  me  less  gayety  and  bustle  here  than  formerly, 
but  as  much  villainy  as  ever.  From  want  of  money  or  of  en- 
terprise, or  from  greater  distrust  and  a  paucity  of  spectators, 
there  is  very  little  betting,  and  what  there  is,  spiritless  and 
dull.  There  are  vast  crowds  of  people  to  see  the  Princess 
Victoria,  who  comes  over  from  Wentworth  to-day,  and  the  Due 
de  Nemours  is  here.  I  am  going  to  run  for  the  St.  Leger, 
which  I  shall  probably  not  win,  and  though  I  am  nervous  and 
excited,  I  shall  not  care  much  if  I  lose,  and  I  doubt  whether  I 
should  care  very  much  if  I  won ;  but  this  latter  sensation  will 
probably  be  forever  doubtful.  There  is  something  in  it  all 
which  displeases  me,  and  I  often  wish  I  was  well  out  of  it. 

Burghley,  September  21st. — I  did  lose  the  St.  Leger,  and 
did  not  care ;  idled  on  at  Doncaster  to  the  end  of  the  week, 
and  came  here  on  Saturday  to  meet  the  Duchess  of  Kent. 
They  arrived  from  Belvoir  at  three  o'clock  in  a  heavy  rain,  the 
civic  authorities  having  turned  out  at  Stamford  to  escort  them, 
and  a  procession  of  different  people  all  very  loyal.  When 
they  had  lunched,  and  the  Mayor  and  his  brethren  had  got 
dry,  the  Duchess  received  the  address,  which  was  read  by 
Lord  Exeter  as  Recorder.  It  talked  of  the  Princess  as  "  des- 
tined to  mount  the  throne  of  these  realms."  Conroy  handed 
the  answer,  just  as  the  Prime  Minister  does  to  the  King. 
They  are  splendidly  lodged,  and  great  preparations  have  been 
made  for  their  reception. 

London,  September  27th. — The  dinner  at  Burghley  was 
very  handsome ;  hall  well  lit;  and  all  went  off  well,  except 


1835.]  O'CONNELL  IN  SCOTLAND.  441 

that  a  pail  of  ice  was  landed  in  the  Duchess's  lap,  which  made 
a  great  bustle.  Three  hundred  people  at  the  ball,  which  was 
opened  by  Lord  Exeter  and  the  Princess,  who,  after  dancing 
one  dance,  went  to  bed.  They  appeared  at  breakfast  the  next 
morning  at  nine  o'clock,  and  at  ten  set  off  to  Holkham.  Went 
to  Newmarket  on  Tuesday  and  came  to  town  on  Wednesday ; 
found  it  very  empty  and  no  news.  Lord  Chatham  died  the 
day  before  yesterday,  which  is  of  no  other  importance  than 
that  of  giving  some  honors  and  emoluments  to  Melbourne  to 
distribute. 

The  papers  are  full  of  nothing  but  O'Connell's  progress  in 
Scotland,  where  he  is  received  with  unbounded  enthusiasm  by 
enormous  crowds,  but  by  no  people  of  rank,  property,  or  char- 
acter. It  is  a  rabble  triumph  altogether,  but  it  is  made  the 
most  of  by  all  the  Ministerial  papers.  The  Opposition  papers 
pour  torrents  of  invective  upon  him,  and  he  in  his  speeches  is 
not  behindhand  with  the  most  virulent  and  scurrilous  of  them ; 
he  is  exalted  to  the  bad  eminence  at  which  he  has  arrived 
more  by  the  assaults  of  his  enemies  than  by  the  efforts  of  his 
friends.  It  is  the  Tories  who  are  ever  insisting  upon  the  im- 
mensity of  his  power,  and  whose  excess  of  hatred  and  fear 
make  him  of  such  vast  account  that  "  he  draws  the  rabble 
after  him  as  a  monster  makes  a  show."  However  mean  may 
be  his  audiences  in  Scotland,  he  has  numbers  to  boast  of,  and 
that  wrll  serve  his  purpose ;  he  will  no  doubt  render  this  re- 
ception instrumental  to  the  increase  of  his  authority  in  Ire- 
land. He  now  avows  that  he  has  abandoned  Repeal,  and  all 
other  projects,  in  order  to  devote  himself  to  the  great  task  of 
reforming  the  House  of  Lords. 

I  have  finished  Mackintosh's  Life  with  great  delight,  and 
many  painful  sensations,  together  with  wonder  and  amaze- 
ment. His  account  of  his  reading  is  utterly  incomprehensible 
to  me ;  he  must  have  been  endowed  with  some  superhuman 
faculty  of  transferring  the  contents  of  books  to  his  own  mind. 
He  talks  in  his  journals  of  reading  volumes  in  a  few  hours 
which  would  seem  to  demand  many  days  even  from  the 
most  rapid  reader.  I  have  heard  of  Southey,  who  would 
read  a  book  through  as  he  stood  in  a  bookseller's  shop; 
that  is,  his  eye  would  glance  down  the  page,  and  by  a  pro- 
cess partly  mechanical,  partly  intellectual,  formed  by  long 
habit,  he  would  extract  in  his  synoptical  passage  all  that  he 
required  to  know.  (Macaulay  was,  and  Geo'rge  Lewis  is, 
just  as  wonderful  in  this  respect.)  Some  of  the  books  that 


143  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

Mackintosh  talks  of,  philosophical  and  metaphysical  works, 
could  not  be  so  disposed  of,  and  I  should  like  much  to  know 
what  his  system  or  his  secret  was.  I  met  Sydney  Smith 
yesterday,  and  asked  him  why  more  of  the  journals  had  not 
been  given.  He  said  because  the  editors  had  been  ill-advised, 
but  that  in  another  edition  more  should  be  given ;  that 
Mackintosh  was  the  most  agreeable  man  he  had  ever  known, 
that  he  had  been  shamefully  used  by  his  friends,  and  by  none 
more  than  by  Brougham.  So,  I  said,  it  would  appear  by 
what  you  say  in  your  letter.  "  Oh,  no,"  he  said,  laughing  and 
chuckling,  and  shaking  his  great  belly,  "you  don't  really 
think  I  meant  to  allude  to  Brougham?  "  "  Mackintosh's  son,'' 
he  said,  "  is  a  man  of  no  talents,  the  composition  (what  there 
is  of  it)  belongs  to  Erskine,  his  son-in-law,  a  sensible  man." 
To  be  sure  there  are  some  strange  things  said  by  Mackintosh 
here  and  there ;  among  others,  that  Lord  Holland  only 
wanted  voice — not  to  be  impeded  in  his  utterance — to  be  a 
greater  orator  than  Canning  or  Brougham !  If  he  had  not 
been  a  man  "  whom  no  sense  of  wrongs  could  rouse  to  ven- 
geance," he  would  have  flung  the  India  Board  in  Lord  Grey's 
face  when  he  was  insulted  with  the  offer  of  it.1  What  are 
we  to  think  of  the  necessary  connection  between  intellectual 
superiority  and  official  eminence,  when  we  have  seen  the 
Duke  of  Richmond  invited  to  be  a  member  of  the  Cabinet, 
while  Mackintosh  was  thrust  into  an  obscure  and  subordinate 
office — Mackintosh  placed  under  the  orders  of  Charles  Grant ! 
Well  might  he  regret  that  he  had  not  been  a  professor,  and, 
"  with  safer  pride  content,"  adorned  with  unusual  glory  some 
academical  chair.  Then  while  he  was  instructing  and  de- 
lighting the  world,  there  would  have  been  many  regrets  and 
lamentations  that  such  mighty  talents  were  confined  to  such 
a  narrow  sphere,  and  innumerable  speculations  of  the  great- 
ness he  would  have  achieved  in  political  life,  and  how  the 
irresistible  force  of  his  genius  and  his  eloquence  must  have 
raised  him  to  the  pinnacle  of  Parliamentary  fame  and  political 
power.  Perhaps  he  would  have  partaken,  in  this  delusion, 
and  have  bitterly  lamented  the  success  which  had  deprived 
him  of  a  more  brilliant  fortune  and  a  loftier  fame;  for  it  may 
reasonably  be  doubted  whether  all  his  laborious  investiga- 
tions of  the  deepest  recesses  of  the  human  mind,  and  his 
extensive  acquaintance  with  the  theory  of  mental  phenomena, 

1  [Sir  James  Mackintosh  was  a  mcnYber  of  the  Board  of  Control  under  Lord 
Groy's  Government.    He  never  held  any  other  office  in  England.] 


1835.]  EMPEROR  NICHOLAS'S  SPEECH.  443 

would  have  enabled  him  accurately  to  ascertain  the  practical 
capabilities  of  his  own  mind,  and  to  arrive  at  those  just  con- 
clusions which  would  indicate  to  him  that  path  of  life  on 
which  it  was  most  expedient  for  him  to  travel,  with  reference 
to  the  strength  of  his  understanding1,  and  the  softness,  not  to 
say  feebleness,  of  his  character. 


CHAPTER    XXX. 

Emperor  Nicholas's  Speech  at  Warsaw — His  Respect  for  Opinion  In  England — Bnrdett  pro- 
poses the  Expulsion  of  O'Connell  from  Brookcs's — Club  Law— George  Villiers  at  Madrid 
— Lord  Segrave  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Gloucestershire — Dispute  between  France  and 
America— Allen's  Account  of  Mackintosh  and  Melbourne— Prolongation  of  a  Patent — 
Should  Dr.  Arnold  be  made  a  Bishop  ? — Frederic  Elliot — O'Oonnell's  Mischievous  Influ- 
ence— Bretby— Chesterfield  MSS. — The  Portfolio— Lord  Cottenham  and  Lord  Langdale 
—Opening  of  Parliament— The  Judicial  Committee — Ponlett  Thomson  at  the  Hoard 
of  1  rade — Mr.  Perceval's  Interviews  with  the  Ministers — Prospects  of  the  Tories — 
Lord  Stanley's  Kelations  to  them— Holland  House  Anecdotes — Mischievous  Eflects  of 
the  Division  on  his  Address — The  Youth  of  Macaulay — Brougham  and  Macaulay — 
Lord  William  Bentinck — fieview  of  Sir  K.  Peel's  Conduct— Dr.  Hainpden's  Appoint- 
ment— The  Orange  Lodges. 

November  IVth. — Since  I  have  been  in  London,  on  my  re- 
turn from  the  Newmarket  meetings,  I  have  had  nothing  to 
note.  The  O'Connell  and  Raphael  wrangle  goes  on,  and  will 
probably  come  before  Parliament.  It  appears  to  make  a 
greater  sensation  at  Paris  than  here ;  there,  however,  all  other 
sensations  are  absorbed  in  that  which  the  Emperor  of  Russia's 
speech  at  Warsaw  has  produced,  and  which  indicates  an  ex- 
citement, or  ferocity,  very  like  insanity.1  Melbourne  men- 
tioned at  dinner  on  Sunday  that  it  was  not  only  quite  correctly 
reported— rather  understated — but  that  after  he  had  so  de- 
livered himself,  he  met  the  English  Consul  in  the  street,  took 
him  by  the  arm,  walked  about  with  him  for  an  hour,  and 
begged  him  not  to  be  too  hard  upon  him  in  his  report  to  his 
Government.  I  was  not  present,  but  Henry  de  Ros  was,  who  told 
it  me.  I  am  thus  particular  from,  as  it  seems  to  me,  the  ex- 
ceeding curiosity  of  the  anecdote,  evincing  on  the  part  of  the 
autocrat,  in  the  midst  of  the  insolence  of  unbridled  power,  a 
sort  of  consciousness  of  responsibility  to  European  opinion, 
and  a  deferential  dread  of  that  of  England  in  particular. 

3  [This  was  the  first  time  the  Emperor  Nicholas  had  visited  Poland  since 
the  Revolution  of  1830,  and  he  took  the  opportunity  to  express  himself  in 
language  of  excessive  severity  to  the  municipality  of  Warsaw,  threatening  to 
lay  the  city  in  ruins  if  the  Poles  rebelled  again.] 


444  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXX. 

November  22d. — My  brother  Algy  showed  me  a  few  days 
ago  a  letter  from  the  Duke  of  Wellington  to  the  Duke  of  Cum- 
berland— a  gossiping  letter  about  nothing,  but  in  which  there 
was  this  which  struck  me  as  odd.  He  said  that  he  was  in- 
formed that  the  English  who  had  been  to  the  reviews  at 
Kalisch  had  been  very  ill  received,  and  that  even  those  to 
whom  he  had  given  letters  of  introduction  had  experienced 
nothing  but  incivility,  and  that  he  regretted  having  had  the 
presumption  to  imagine  that  any  recommendation  of  his  would 
be  attended  to  by  the  Sovereigns  or  their  Ministers — a  curious 
exhibition  of  pique,  for  what  I  believe  to  be  an  imaginary 
incivility.  It  is  a  strange  thing  that  he  is  very  sensitive,  and 
yet  has  no  strong  feelings ;  but  this  is  after  all  only  one  of  the 
forms  of  selfishness. 

Burdett  has  written  a  letter  to  the  managers  of  Brookes's 
to  propose  the  expulsion  of  O'Connell.  It  will  do  no  good ; 
these  abortive  attempts  do  nothing  toward  plucking  him 
down  from  his  bad  eminence,  and  their  failure  gives  him  a 
triumph.  So  it  was  in  Alvanley's  case ;  there  a  great  deal  of 
very  proper  indignation  was  thrown  away,  and  O'Connell  had 
the  satisfaction  of  baffling  his  antagonists,  and  obtaining  a 
sort  of  recognition  of  his  assumed  right  to  act  as  he  does. 
It  is  a  case  which  admits  of  a  good  argument  either  way. 
On  the  one  side  is  the  perilous  example  of  any  club  taking 
cognizance  of  acts  of  its  members,  private  or  political,  which 
do  not  concern  the  club,  or  have  no  local  reference  to  it — a 
principle,  if  cnce  admitted,  of  which  it  would  be  next  to  im- 
possible to  regulate  and  control  the  application,  and  probably 
be  productive  of  greater  evils  than  those  it  would  be  intended 
to  remedy.  On  the  other  hand,  the  case  of  O'Connell  is 
altogether  peculiar;  it  is  such  a  one  as  can  hardly  ever  occur 
again,  and  therefore  may  be  treated  as  deserving  an  exception 
from  ordinary  rules,  because  it  not  only  cannot  be  drawn  into 
a  precedent,  but  the  very  circumstance  of  its  being  so  treated 
must  prevent  the  possibility  of  its  recurrence.  There  exists  a 
code  of  social  law,  which  is  universally  subscribed  to,  as  ne- 
cessary and  indispensable  for  the  preservation  of  social  har- 
mony and  decorum.  One  man  has  given  public  notice  that  he 
is  self-emancipated  from  its  obligations  ;  that  he  acknowledges 
none  of  the  restraints,  and  will  submit  to  none  of  the  penal- 
ties, by  which  the  intercourse  of  society  is  regulated  and  kept 
in  order;  and  having  thus  surrounded  himself  with  all  the 
immunities  of  irresponsibility,  "  out  of  the  reach  of  danger 


1835.]  SOCIAL  LAW. 

he  is  bold,  out  of  the  reach  of  shame  he  is  confident."  In- 
stead of  feeling  that  he  is  specially  bound  to  guard  his  lan- 
guage with  the  most  scrupulous  care,  and  to  abstain  relig- 
iously from  every  offensive  expression,  he  mounts  into  regions 
of  scurrility  and  abuse  inaccessible  to  all  other  men,  and  he 
riots  in  invective  and  insult  with  a  scornful  and  ostentatious 
exhibition  of  his  invulnerability,  which  renders  him  an  object 
of  execration  to  all  those  who  cherish  the  principles  and  the 
feelings  of  honor. 

November  29th. — There  are  gloomy  letters  from  George 
Villiers  at  Madrid ;  he  attributes  the  Spanish  difficulties  more 
to  the  conduct  of  Louis  Philippe  than  any  thing  else,  who,  he 
says,  is  playing  false  diabolically.  Mendizabal  is  very  able, 
but  ill  surrounded  :  no  other  public  man  of  any  merit.  Par- 
ties are  violent  and  individuals  foolish,  mischievous,  and  cor- 
rupt ;  the  country  poor,  depopulated,  ignorant — out  of  such 
elements  what  good  can  come  ?  His  letters  (to  his  mother 
and  brothers)  are  very  interesting,  very  well  written,  clever, 
lively ;  he  seems  a  little  carried  aAvay  by  the  vanity  and  the 
excitement  of  the  part  he  plays,  and  I  observe  a  want  of 
steadiness  in  his  opinions  and  a  disposition  to  waver  in  his 
views  from  day  to  day ;  whereas  it  does  not  appear  to  me  as 
if  the  state  of  Spain  depended  upon  diurnal  circumstances 
and  events,  but  more  upon  the  workings  of  great  causes  in- 
terwoven with,  and  deeply  seated  in,  the  positive  state  of  so- 
ciety and  the  moral  and  political  condition  of  the  nation. 

December  kth. — A  letter  I  wrote  the  other  day  about 
O'Connell  appeared  on  Tuesday  in  the  Times.  It  rather  took, 
for  the  evening  (Tory)  papers  all  copied  it,  and  I  heard  it  was 
talked  of.  Yesterday  there  appeared  an  answer  of  O'Con- 
nell's  to  Burdett's  letter — very  short,  but  very  clever ;  and 
those  who  know  Burdett  say,  well  calculated  to  mortify  and 
annoy  him.  I  called  on  Stanley  yesterday,  who  said  that  he 
thought  the  Raphael  case  ought  to  and  would  be  made  some- 
thing of  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  that  Spring  Rice, 
whom  he  had  lately  seen,  had  told  him  he  thought  it  a  clear 
case  of  bribery.  Lord  Segrave  has  got  the  Gloucestershire 
Lieutenancy,  and  this  appointment,  disgraceful  in  itself,  ex- 
hibits all  the  most  objectionable  features  of  the  old  borough- 
mongering  system,  which  was  supposed  to  be  swept  away. 
(He  turned  out  a  good  Lord-Lieutenant.)  He  was  in  London 
as  soon  as  the  breath  was  out  of  the  Duke  of  Beaufort's  body, 
went  to  Melbourne,  and  claimed  this  appointment  on  tin 


446  REIGN   OF  WILL/AM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXX. 

score  of  having  three  members,  which  was  more  than  any 
other  man  in  England  now  returned.  "  My  brothers,"  he 
said,  "  the  electors  do  not  know  by  sight ;  it'is  my  influence 
which  returns  them."  The  appeal  was  irresistible,  and  "  We 
are  three  "  was  as  imperative  with  Melbourne  as  "  We  are 
seven  "  was  with  the  Duke  of  Newcastle.  The  scarcity  of 
the  commodity  enhances  its  value,  and  now  that  nominations 
are  swept  away,  the  few  who  are  still  fortunate  enough  to 
possess  some  remnants  are  great  men  ;  and  Segrave's  three 
brothers,  thrown  (as  they  would  without  scruple  have  been) 
into  the  opposite  scale,  would  have  nearly  turned  it.  There 
is  a  very  respectable  Whig  (Lord  Ducie)  in  the  county,  whom 
everybody  pointed  out  as  the  fittest  successor  to  the  late 
Duke;  but  he  has  not  three  members,  and  if  he  had,  he  wculd 
not  shake  them  in  terrorem  over  Melbourne's  head. 

December  Wth  and  llth. — Our  Government  are  in  a  great 
alarm  lest  this  dispute  between  the  French  and  Americans 
should  produce  a  war,  and  the  way  in  which  we  should  be 
affected  by  it  is  this : *  Our  immense  manufacturing  popula- 
tion is  dependent  upon  America  for  a  supply  of  cotton,  and, 
in  case  of  any  obstruction  to  that  supply,  multitudes  would  be 
thrown  out  of  employment,  and  incalculable  distress  would 
follow.  They  think  that  the  French  would  blockade  the 
American  ports,  and  then  such  obstruction  would  be  inevi- 
table. A  system  like  ours,  which  resembles  a  vast  piece  of 
machinery,  no  part  of  which  can  be  disordered  without  danger 
to  the  whole,  must  be  always  liable  to  interruption  or  in- 
jury from  causes  over  which  we  have  no  control;  and  this 
danger  must  always  attend  the  extension  of  our  manufacturing 
system  to  the  prejudice  of  other  interests  ;  so  that,  in  case  of 
a  stoppage  or  serious  interruption  to  the  current  in  which  it 
flows,  the  consequences  would  be  appalling ;  nor  is  there  in 
all  probability  a  nation  on  the  Continent  (our  good  ally  Louis 
Philippe  included)  that  would  not  gladly  contribute  to  the 
humiliation  of  the  power  and  diminution  of  the  wealth  of 
this  country. 

December  IQth. — Dined  with  Sefton  the  day  before  yester- 
iay,  to  meet  the  Hollands ;  sat  between  Allen  and  Luttrell. 

1  [This  dispute  arose  from  the  detention  of  American  ships  by  the  Emperor 
Napoleon  under  the  Continental  system.  The  Americans  claimed  large  dam- 
ages, and  the  negotiation  lasted  twenty  years.  At  length  General  Jackson,  the 
American  President,  insisted  on  payment,  and  the  French  Government  settled 
the  matter  for  twenty-five  millions  of  francs  ;  but  the  question  led  to  a  change 
in  the  French  Ministry.] 


1835.]  MACKINTOSH'S  RELlGIvl  JS  BELIEF.  447 

Melbourne  was  there,  in  roaring  spirits  ;  met  me  very  cordial- 
ly, and  after  dinner  said  :  "  Well,  how  are  you  ?  I  had  a 
great  deal  to  say  to  you,  but  I  forget  what  it  was  now."  To 
which  I  replied :  "  Oh,  never  mind  now ;  we  are  here  to 
amuse  ourselves,  and  we  won't  talk  of  other  things."  I  could 
not  have  settled  any  thing  with  him  there,  so  there  was  no  use 
in  beginning;  and  this  put  him  at  his  ease,  instead  of  making 
him  hate  the  sight  of  me,  and  fancying  wherever  he  met  me 
that  I  should  begin  badgering  him  about  my  affairs.1  In  the 
world  men  must  be  dealt  with  according,  to  what  they  are, 
and  not  to  what  they  ought  to  be ;  and  the  great  art  of  life 
is  to  find  out  what  they  are,  and  act  with  them  accordingly. 

Allen  talked  of  Mackintosh,  and  of  his  declaration  of  reli- 
gious belief  on  his  death-bed,  when  he  had  never  believed  at 
all  during  his  life.  He  said  that  Mackintosh  was  not  very 
deeply  read  in  theolog\r.  Melbourne,  on  the  contrary,  is,  and 
being  a  very  good  Greek  scholar  (which  Mackintosh  was  not), 
has  compared  the  Evidences  and  all  modern  theological  works 
with  the  writings  of  the  Fathers.  He  did  not  believe  that 
Melbourne  entertained  any  doubts,  or  that  his  mind  was  at  all 
distracted  and  perplexed  with  much  thinking  and  much  read- 
ing on  the  subject,  but  that  his  studies  and  reflections  have 
led  him  to  a  perfect  conviction  of  unbelief.4  He  thought,  if 
Mackintosh  had  lived  much  with  Christians,  he  would  have 
been  one  too.  We  .talked  of  Middleton,  and  Allen  said  that 
he  believed  he  really  died  a  Christian,  but  that  he  was  rapidly 
ceasing  to  be  one,  and,  if  he  had  lived,  would  probably  have 
continued  the  argument  of  his  free  inquiry  up  to  the  Apostles 
themselves.  He  urged  me  to  read  Lardner;  said  he  had 
never  read  Paley  nor  the  more  recent  Evidences,  the  materials 
of  all  of  which  are,  however,  taken  from  Lardner's  work. 
Luttrell  was  talking  of  Moore  and  Rogers — the  poetry  of  the 
former  so  licentious,  that  of  the  latter  so  pure,  much  of  its 
popularity  owing  to  its  being  so  carefully  weeded  of  every 
thing  approaching  to  indelicacy;  and  the  contrast  between 
the  lives  and  the  works  of  the  two  men — the  former  a  pattern 
of  conjugal  and  domestic  regularity  ;  the  latter  of  all  the  men 
he  had  ever  knosvn  the  greatest  sensualist. 

1  [This  referred  to  some  private  affairs  of  Mr.  Greville's  which  were  then 
under  discussion,  and  on  which  Lord  Melbourne's  influence  was  important.] 

*  [John  Allen  was  himself  BO  fierce  an  unbeliever,  and  so  bitter  an  enemy 
to  the  Christian  religion,  that  ho  was  very  fond  of  asserting  that  other  men 
believed  as  little  as  himself.  It  was  almost  always  Allen  who  gave  an  irre- 
ligious tuni  to  the  conversation  at  Holland  House  when  these  subjects  wero 
discussed  there.] 


448  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXX. 

^  Yesterday  Lyndhurst  and  Brougham  both  came  to  the 
Council  Office,  to  hear  the  first  application  for  the  renewal  of 
a  patent,  and,  though  there  was  no  opposition,  they  scruti- 
nized the  petition  and  evidence  with  the  utmost  jealousy, 
which  they  did  in  order  to  intimate  that  the  granting  a  pro- 
longation of  the  patent,  even  when  unopposed,  was  not  to  be 
a  matter  of  course.  It  was  a  piano-forte  invention,  and  the 
instrument  was  introduced  into  the  Council  Chamber,  and 
played  upon  by  Madame  Dlllcken,  for  the  edification  of  their 
Lordships. 

December  18th. — Melbourne  told  me  (the  other  night  at 
Sefton's)  that  he  had  been  down  to  Oatlands  to  consult  F.  and 
H.  about  Dr.  Arnold  (of  Rugby),  and  to  ascertain  if  he  could 
properly  make  him  a  bishop ;  but  they  did  not  encourage  him, 
which  I  was  surprised  at,  recollecting  the  religious  corre- 
spondence which  formerly  passed  between  them  and  him. 
Arnold,  however,  shocks  the  High  Churchmen,  and  is  not 
considered  orthodox ;  and  Melbourne  said  it  would  make  a 
great  uproar  to  put  him  on  the  Bench,  and  was  out  of  the 
question.  He  had  been  reading  his  sermons,  which  he  thought 
very  able. 

December  20th. — The  Treasury  have  sent  a  proposed  draft 
of  a  minute  in  my  case.  When  it  is  over  I  shall  not  much 
care,  for  I  have  long  since  abandoned  all  expectation  of  being 
rich,  and  there  are  none  of  my  expensive  pursuits  which 
I  could  riot  resign  very  cheerfully.  Up  to  a  certain  point 
riches  contribute  largely  to  the  happiness  of  life,  but  no 
further.  To  be  free  from  the  necessity  of  daily  self-denial  and 
continual  calculation  is  indispensable  to  happiness,  but  the 
major  luxuries — ostentatious  superfluities — contribute  little  or 
nothing  to  rational  enjoyment.  I  have  just  seen  an  excellent 
letter  from  Frederic  Elliot  to  Taylor,  with  a  description  of 
the  state  of  parties  and  politics  in  Lower  Canada,  which  has 
been  shown  to  the  Ministers,  who  think  it  the  ablest  expose 
on  those  heads  that  has  been  transmitted  from  thence.  I  have 
very  little  doubt  that  he  will  go  far  /  he  has  an  admirable 
talent  for  business,  a  clear  head,  liberal  and  unprejudiced 
opinions,  and  he  writes  remarkably  well.1 

December    24#A.  —  The   Northamptonshire   election   has 

1  [This  prediction  was  fulfilled.  Mr.  Frederic  Elliot  was  the  youngest  son 
of  the  Et.  Hon.  Hugh  Elliot,  and  nephew  of  the  first  Earl  of  Minto.  He  went 
to  Canada  in  1835  with  Lord  Gosford,  entered  the  Colonial  Office  on  his  return 
to  England,  rose  to  be  Assistant  Under-Secretary  in  that  department,  and  is 
now  (1873)  Sir  T.  Frederic  Elliot,  K.S.M.G.] 


1836.]  NORTHAMPTONSHIRE  ELECTION.  449 

greatly  elevated  the  spirits  of  the  Conservatives,  and  though 
the  Whigs  affect  to  hold  it  cheap,  they  are  not  a  little  discon- 
certed by  the  magnitude  of  the  majority,  so  unexpected  by 
both  parties.  Impartial  moderate  men  (such,  for  example,  as 
the  judges  who  sit  in  Court)  attribute  it  to  a  strong  prevail- 
ing feeling  against  O'Connell ;  and  it  would  appear  to  be  so, 
because  Haubury,  and  even  Vernon  Smith,  were  compelled  to 
hold  language  very  adverse  to  him  on  the  hustings.  This 
O'Connell  connection  will,  after  all,  probably  end  in  destroy- 
ing the  Government ;  his  last  letter  against  the  Peers  is  a  very 
despicable  performance,  and  he  will  be  more  injured  by  his 
own  than  by  Burdett's  productions. 

December  26th. — The  adherents  of  Government  are  cer- 
tainly alarmed  at  the  present  aspect  of  things.  Lord  William 
Bentinck,  who  is  as  Radical  as  need  be,  wrote  to  his  wife  at 
Paris:  "Tory  matters  are  certainly  looking  up. here;  that 
senseless  cry  against  O'Connell  has  produced  a  great  effect." 
Nevertheless,  they  affect  at  Brookes's  to  hold  it  all  very  cheap. 

December  30th. — Wednesday  at  Roehampton — since  Mon- 
day ;  for  the  first  time  since  Lord  Dover's  death.  Luttrell, 
Poodle,  Byng,  Baring  Wall ;  Lady  Dover  still  in  weeds.  Lord 
Clifden  not  a  jot  altered  from  his  usual  gayety ;  such  is  the 
difference  between  the  feelings  of  youth  and  age. 

The  exultation  of  the  Tories  at  the  Northamptonshire  elec- 
tion has  been  wofully  damped  by  the  result  of  the  Corpora- 
tion elections,  nine  out  of  ten  of  which  have  gone  for  the 
Radicals,  and  in  many  places  all  the  persons  elected  are  of 
that  persuasion.  The  constituency  is  certainly  different,  and 
a  desire  to  make  maison  nette  of  these  dens  of  corruption  is 
not  unnatural ;  but  it  affords  a  plausible  subject  for  triumph 
on  the  Radical  side,  and  has  a  formidable  appearance. 

1836. 

Melton  Mowbray,  January  20th. — I  went  with  Henry  de 
Ros  from  London  to  Middleton  last  Saturday  fortnight,  staid 
till  the  Thursday  following,  and  then  to  Badminton — eighteen 
years  since  I  had  been  there.  Last  Thursday  to  Bretby  ; 
slept  at  Worcester  on  Thursday  night,  stopped  to  see  the 
Cathedrals  at  Gloucester,  Worcester,  and  Lichficld,  and  the 
Church  at  Tewkesbury — all  well  worth  seeing,  and  containing 
curious  monuments,  especially  that  of  Bishop  Hough  at 
Worcester  by  Roubiliac,  exceedingly  grand  ;  and  in  Lichfield 


450  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [«HAP.  XXX. 

Cathedral  a  chapter-house  of  surpassing  beauty.  At  Bretby 
the  Duke  of  Wellington  had  been,  and  Peel  still  was,  but 
he  departed  early  the  next  movning.  I  had  been  anxious 
to  go  there  to  look  over  the  Chesterfield  MSS.,  but  I  was 
disappointed ;  there  were  only  three  large  volumes  of  letters 
come-at-able  out  of  thirty,  the  other  twenty-seven  being 
locked  up,  and  the  key  was  gone  to  be  mended.  These  three 
I  ran  over  'hastily,  but  though  they  may  contain  matter  that 
would  be  useful  to  the  historian  of  that  period  (from  1728  to 
about  1732),  there  was  little  in  any  way  attractive,  as  they 
consisted  wholly  of  diplomatic  letters  to  Lord  Chesterfield 
during  his  Embassy  at  the  Hague.  As  this  correspondence 
occupied  twenty  volumes  (for  the  three  I  found  were  the  sec- 
ond, third,  and  twentieth),  I  fear  the  others  may  not  contain 
any  thing  of  greater  general  interest. 

I  was  desirous  of  seeing  the  Duke  to  hear  what  he  says 
to  the  Portfolio,1  which  makes  so*  much  noise  here.  Peel 
told  me  that  the  Duke  was  not  at  all  annoyed  by  it,  *and 
that  he  did  riot  see  why  Matuscewitz  need  be  either ;  that 
Matuscewitz  wrote  what  he  thought  and  believed  at  the 
time,  as  he  was  bound  to  do,  and  long  before  his  intimacy 
with  the  Duke  began.  He  said  that  the  letters  are  certainly 
authentic,  though  possibly  tlrere  may  be  some  omissions. 
But  the  Duke's  women  endeavor  to  stir  up  his  resentment, 
and  to  make  him  think  himself  ill-used,  though  he  is  dis- 
posed to  treat  the  matter  with  great  good-humor  and  indif- 
ference. Of  politics  I  have  heard  little,  and  learned  nothing; 
the  Tory  houses  I  have  successively  been  at  are  all  on  the 
alert,  and  fancy  they  are  to  do  great  things  this  next  session, 
but  I  expect  it  will  all  end  in  smoke. 

The  law  appointments  of  Pepys a  and  Bickersteth  are 
reckoned  very  good,  and  they  have  certainly  been  made  with 

1  [A  collection  of  diplomatic  papers  and  correspondence  between  the  Kus- 
sian  Government  and  its  agents,  published  about  this  time  by  Mr.  Urquhart, 
which  was  supposed  to  throw  light  on  the  secret  policy  of  the  Cabinet  of  St. 
Petersburg.     They  were,  in  factj  copies  of  the  original  documents  which  had 
Keen   sent  to   Warsaw  for  the   information  of  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine 
when  Viceroy  of  Poland,  and  they  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  insurgents  at 
the  time  of  the  Polish  Ee volution  of  1830.     Prince  Adam  Czartoryski  brought 
ihem  to  England,  where  the  publication  of  them  excited  great  attention.] 

2  [Sir  Christopher  Pepvs,  Master  of  the  Rolls,  was  raised  to  the  Peerage  as 
Lord  Cottenham,  and  received  tha  Great  Seal.    Mr.  Bickersteth  succeeded  him 
as  Master  of  the  Kolls,  and  was  raised  to  the  Peerage  with  the  title  of  Lord 
Langdale.     These  appointments  were  much  discussed,  and  at  last  decided  by  a 
vote  of  the  Cabinet,  several  of  the  Ministers  being  in  favor  of  making  Bicker- 
Bteth  Lord  Chancellor,  because  he  promised  more  as  a  Law  Reformer.] 


1836.]  PROSPECTS  OF   THE   SESSION.  451 

especial  reference  to  the  fitness  of  the  men  to  preside  over 
their  respective  Courts.  Pepys's  is  perhaps  one  of  the  most 
curious  instances  of  elevation  that  ever  occurred :  a  good 
sound  lawyer,  in  leading-  practice  at  the  Bar,  never  heard  of 
in  politics,  no  orator,  a  plain  undistinguished  man,  to  whom 
expectation  never  pointed,  and  upon  whom  the  Solicitor- 
Generalship  fell  as  it  were  by  accident,  finds  himself  Master 
of  the  Rolls  in  a  few  -months  after  his  appointment,  by  the 
sudden  death  of  Leach,  and  in  little  more  than  one  year  from 
that  time  a  peer  and  Chancellor.  I  fancy  there  were  con- 
siderable difficulties  in  settling  these  appointments,  and  in 
satisfying  disappointed  expectants,  but  of  the  details  of  the 
difficulties  I  know  nothing.  They  will  probably  confer  some 
strength  on  the  Government.  We  came  here  yesterday,  and 
are  comfortably  lodged  at  Wilton's. 

London,  January  30th. — Dinner  yesterday  for  the  Sheriffs.1 
The  plan  I  have  adopted  (which  was  not  completely  executed, 
owing  to  the  absence  of  some  of  the  judges  from  the  Exche- 
quer on  "  the  morrow  of  St.  Martin's  ")  did  very  well,  and  we 
had  few  difficulties  with  the  English  counties.  There  was 
Lord  Cottenham,  for  the  first  time,  and  Howick  and  Poulett 
Thomson,  their  first  appearance  as  Cabinet  Ministers.  Parlia- 
ment opens  on  Thursday,  and  as  far  as  I  can  judge  with  a  fa- 
vorable prospect  for  the  present  Government.  Stanley  has 
openly  expressed  his  opinion  that  no  changes  are  desirable, 
and  Peel  will  not  be  anxious  to  thrust  himself  in,  with  a 
doubtful  chance  of  keeping  his  place  if  he  can  get  it ;  so  the 
hot  and  sanguine  Tories,  who  have  been  vastly  elevated  at 
the  prospect  they  thought  was  before  them,  will  have  to  fret 
and  fume  and  chew  the  cud  of  disappointment.  There  was  a 
great  Tory  gathering  at  Drayton  the  other  day,  but  I  have 
not  heard  what  they  resolved  upon.  Lord  Lansdowne  told 
me  yesterday  that  Stanley  has  declared  openly  the  opinion 
above  stated,  and  he  seems  to  think  they  are  pretty  safe. 
Tavistock  wrote  me  word  that  the  Government  meant  to  be 
moderate,  and  that  any  concessions  would  be  made  by-,  and 
not  to,  the  violent  section.  The  great  questions  likely  to  be 
discussed  are  the  Appropriation  clause  and  the  Irish  Corpora- 
tion Bill.  The  Government  and  O'Connell  are  not  likely  to 

i  Tho  Lord  President  of  the  Council  gives  an  annual  dinner  to  his  colleagues, 
at  which  the  list  of  Sheriffs  for  the  ensuiug  year  is  settled.  The  arrangements 
are  made  by  the  Clerk  of  the  Council,  alter  the  nomination  of  the  Sheriffs  by 
the  Judges. 


452  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXX. 

differ  on  any  thing  but  tins,  and  if  a  strong  measure  passes 
the  House  of  Commons,  the  Lords  will  throw  it  out,  and 
probably  Government  will  not  in  their  hearts  be  sorry  for  it. 
In  the  balanced  state  of  parties,  the  tranquillity  and  prosperity 
that  prevail,  possession  is  every  thing,  and  I  am  therefore 
quite  satisfied  that  nothing  but  some  unforeseen  circumstance 
or  event  will  disturb  these  people.  Brougham  is  seriously  ill 
at  Brougham.  Melbourne  has  been  in  correspondence  with 
him,  and  these  arrangements  are  by  way  of  having  been  made 
with  his  concurrence.  Nothing  whatever  is  settled  as  to  ulte- 
rior law  matters  ;  the  Vice-Chancellor  told  me  so  yesterday, 
and  the  Chancellor  told  him.  They  talk  of  a  permanent  judge 
in  the  Privy  Council,  which  would  be  a  virtual  repeal  of  the 
principal  part  of  Brougham's  famous  Bill ;  for  if  there  was  one 
permanent  judge  with  a  casual  quorum,  the  permanent  judge 
would  in  point  of  fact  be  the  real  administrator  of  the  law,  as 
he  used  to  be  under  the  old  system. 

I  had  a  great  deal  of  conversation  with  Poulett  Thomson 
last  night  after  dinner  on  one  subject  or  another ;  he  is  very 
good-humored,  pleasing,  and  intelligent,  but  the  greatest  cox- 
comb I  ever  saw,  and  the  vainest  dog,  though  his  vanity  is 
not  offensive  or  arrogant;  but  he  told  me  that  when  Lord 
Grey's  Government  was  formed  (at  which  time  he  was  a 
junior  partner  in  a  mercantile  house,  and  had  been  at  most 
five  years  in  Parliament),  he  was  averse  to  take  office,  but 
Althorp  declared  he  would  not  come  in  unless  Thomson  did 
also,  and  that,  knowing  the  importance  of  Althorp's  accession 
to  the  Government,  he  sacrificed  a  large  income,  and  took  the 
Board  of  Trade ;  that  when  this  was  offered  to  him,  he  was 
asked  whether  he  cared  if  he  was  President  or  Vice-President, 
as  they  wished  to  make  Lord  Auckland  President  if  he  (Pou- 
lett Thomson)  had  no  objection.  He  said,  provided  the  Presi- 
dent was  not  in  the  Cabinet,  he  did  not  care  ;  and  accordingly 
he  condescended  to  be  Vice-President,  knowing  that  all  the 
business  must  be  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  that  he  must 
be  (as  in  fact  he  said  he  was)  the  virtual  head  of  the  office. 
All  this  was  told  with  a  good-humored  and  smiling  compla- 
cency, which  made  me  laugh  internally.  He  then  descanted 
on  the  inefficiency  of  his  subordinates  ;  that  Auckland  did  not 
like  writing,  that  nobody  else  could  \yite,  and  consequently 
every  paper  had  been  drawn  up  by  himself  since  he  first  en- 
tered the  office.  To  do  him  justice  I  believe  he  is  very  indus- 
trious. When  he  got  into  the  Cabinet  he  said  he  could  no 


1836.]  PERCEVAL'S  APOSTOLIC  MISSION.  453 

longer  go  on  in  this  way,  and  accordingly  he  kas  superan- 
nuated Lack,  and  is  going  to  appoint  the  best  man  he  can  find 
in  his  place.  This  operation  has  led  to  the  removal  of  Hajr, 
whom  Stephen  replaces  at  the  Colonial  Office. 

February  1st. — Ho  wick  gave  me  an  account  yesterday  of 
Spencer  Perceval's  communications  to  the  Ministers,  and 
other  Privy  Councilors.  He  called  on  Howick,  who  received 
him  very  civilly.  Perceval  began,  "  You  will  probably  be  sur- 
prised when  you  learn  what  has  brought  me  here."  Howick 
bowed.  "  You  are  aware  that  God  has  been  pleased  in  these 
latter  times  to  make  especial  communications  of  His  will  to  cer- 
tain chosen  instruments,  in  a  language  not  intelligible  to  those 
who  hear  it,  nor  always  to  those  by  whom  it  is  uttered  :  I  am 
one  of  those  instruments,  to  whom  it  has  pleased  the  Almighty 
to  make  known  His  will,  and  I  am  come  to  declare  to  you, 
etc.  .  .  ."  and  then  he  went  oft7  in  a  rhapsody  about  the  de- 
generacy of  the  times,  and  the  people  falling  off  from  God. 
I  asked  him  what  Perceval  seemed  to  be  driving  at,  what  was 
his  definite  object  ?  He  said  it  was  not  discoverable,  but  that 
from  the  printed  paper  which  he  had  circulated  to  all  Privy 
Councilors  (for  to  that  body  he  appears  to  think  that  his  mis- 
sion is  addressed),  in  which  he  specifies  all  the  great  acts  of 
legislation  for  the  last  five  years  (beginning  with  the  repeal 
of  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts),  as  the  evidences  of  a  falling 
off  from  God,  or  as  the  causes  of  the  divine  anger,  it  may  per- 
haps be  inferred  that  he  means  they  should  all  be  repealed. 
It  is  a  ridiculous  and  melancholy  exposure.  His  different  re- 
ceptions by  different  people  are  amusing  and  characteristic 
Howick  listened  to  him  with  patient  civility.  Melbourne 
argued  with  and  cross-questioned  him.  He  told  him  "  that 
he  ought  to  have  gone  to  the  Bishops  rather  than  to  him," 
to  which  Perceval  replied  that  one  of  the  brethren  (Henrv 
Drummond)  was  gone  to  the  Archbishop.  Stanley  turned 
him  out  at  once.  As  soon  as  he  began  he  said  :  "  There  is  no 
use,  Mr.  Perceval,  in  going  on  in  this  way  to  me.  We  had, 
therefore  better  put  an  end  to  the  subject,  and  I  wish  yon 
good-morning."  He  went  to  Lord  Holland,  and  Lady  Holland 
was  with  great  difficulty  persuaded  to  allow  him  to  go  and 
receive  the  Apostles.  She  desired  Lord  John  Russell  (who 
happened  to  be  in  the  house)  to  go  with  him,  but  John  begged 
to  be  excused,  alleging  that  he  had  already  had -his  interview 
and  did  not  wish  for  another.  So  at  last  she  let  Lord  Holland 


454  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXX. 

be  wheeled  in,  but  ordered  Edgar  and  Harold,  the  two  pages, 
to  post  themselves  outside  the  door,  and  rush  in  if  they  heard 
Lord  Holland  scream.  Perceval  has  been  with  the  King,  and 
went  to  Dray  ton  after  Sir  Kobert  Peel,  but  he  complains  that 
he  cannot  catch  the  Duke  of  Wellington. 

February  3d. — A  meeting  at  the  Council  Office  yesterday 
on  another  patent  case,  a  gun — Baron  Heurteloup,  the  famous 
lithotritic  doctor  and  inventor — which  was  clicked  off  for  the 
information  of  their  Lordships.  Since  this  Patent  Bill,  we 
have  got  very  noisy  between  percussion  guns  and  piano-fortes. 
I  walked  away  with  Lyndhurst  to  hear  what  he  had  to  say. 
He  said  he  understood  that  Peel  had  come  to  town  with  the 
intention  of  being  very  active,  but  that  the  Duke  talked  of 
staying  at  Strath fieldsaye  till  after  Easter;  and  if  the  Duke 
did  not  attend  the  House  of  Lords,  no  more  would  he ;  he  said 
it  was  impossible  to  turn  out  the  Government — what  could 
they  do  ?  that  it  would  never  do  for  them  to  come  in  again 
without  a  considerable  majority,  and  that  they  had  not,  nor 
would  have.  What  would  a  dissolution  do  for  them  ?  Not, 
I  said,  any  thing  considerable,  if  the  new  Corporation  were 
to  have  the  influence  he  always  attributed  to  them;  and  I 
asked  him  whether  the  working  of  the  Municipal  Bill  promised 
to  be  as  mischievous  as  he  had  expected.  He  said,  "  Yes,  I 
think  so ; ''  but  I  could  see  that  he  does  not  think  so  very  badly 
of  it  as  he  once  told  me.  However,  I  gather  from  him  that 
the  leaders  are  aware  that  the  time  is  not  come  for  attempt- 
ing to  push  out  the  Government,  and  that  they  will  not  try  ; 
their  difficulty  will  be  to  deal  with  their  own  rash  and  impa- 
tient followers,  who  are  always  for  desperate  courses.  Lvnd- 
hurst  told  me  that  he  thought  Peel  felt  very  bitterly  toward 
Stanley,  and  that  it  must  end  in  their  decided  opposition  to 
each  other.  I  confess  I  never  had  much  faith  in  any  union 
between  them  which  was  likely  to  be  durable  or  satisfactory. 
Stanley  has  been  living  constantly  with  the  Whigs,  and 
probably  looks  forward  to  joining  them  again,  when  'the 
settlement,  or  some  settlement,  of  the .  Church  question  will 
allow  him  ;  and  it  will  be  much  more  congenial  to  his  tastes 
and  character  to  be  the  rival  of  Peel  than  his  subordinate. 
I  told  Lyndhurst  that  I  hoped  the  House  of  Lords  would  be 
moderate,  confine  their  opposition  to  certain  great  measures 
and  not  thwart  the  Government  without  necessity.  He  said 
he  was  desirous  so  to  do,  to  deal  with  great  measures  of  legis- 


1836.]  LYNDIIURST   ON  THE  HOUSE  OF  LORDS.  455 

lation  as  they  might  see  fit,  but  no  more.  I  asked  him  why 
they  threw  out  certain  Bills  last  year,  among  others  the  Dub- 
lin Police  Bill,  to  which  there  really  had  seemed  to  be  no  objec- 
tion. He  said,  for  two  reasons:  one  was  that  they  did  not 
choose  to  admit  the  practice  that  after  Parliament  had  been 
sitting  many  months,  during  which  Bills  might  have  been  sent 
up,  and  plenty  of  time  afforded  for  their  consideration,  they 
should  be  laid  upon  the  table  of  the  House  of  Lords  just  at 
the  end  of  the  session,  when  they  were  to  be  hurried  over,  and 
passed  without  that  mature  deliberation  which  they  required  ; 
and  particularly  as  to  the  Dublin  Police  Bill,  that  they  well 
knew  it  was  a  mere  job  to  provide  for  certain  of  O'Connell's 
friends.  He  then  mentioned  a  fact  in  justification  of  the  first 
of  the  above  reasons — that,  in  discussing  with  Duncannon  one 
of  the  Irish  Bills  of  which  he  had  the  management,  he  alluded 
to  one  particular  clause.  Duncannon  asserted  that  there  was 
no  such  clause  in  the  Bill.  He  repeated  that  there  was,  when 
Duncannon  went  away,  and  soon  afterward  returned  and  ac- 
knowledged that  he  had  been  in  error,  that  the  clause  was 
there,  though  he  was  cot  aware  of  it,  nor  had  it  been  inserted 
in  the  copy  with  which  he  had  been  first  furnished. 

I  heard  a  great  deal  more  about  Perceval's  proceedings, 
and  those  of  his  colleagues,  yesterday ;  they  continue  to  visit 
the  Privy  Councilors.  Lyndhurst  told  me  he  had  been  with 
him  for  an  hour,  Lord  Lansdowne  the  same.  When  he  gave 
Lord  Lansdowne  his  book,  as  he  glanced  over  it,  Perceval 
said :  "  I  am  aware  it  is  not  well  written ;  the  composition  is 
not  perfect,  but  I  was  not  permitted  to  alter  it ;  I  was  obliged 
to  write  it  as  I  received  it."  Drummond  went  in  a  chaise- 
and-four  to  the  Archbishop  of  York  at  Nuneham,  who  en- 
deavored to  stop  his  mouth  with  a  good  luncheon,  but  this 
would  not  do.  He  told  the  Archbishop  the  end  of  the  world 
was  approaching,  and  that  it  was  owing  to  the  neglect  of  him- 
self and  his  brethren  that  the  nation  was  in  its  present  awful 
state.  Perceval  told  Lord  Lansdowne  that  their  sect  was  in- 
creasing greatly  and  rapidly  ;  they  have  several  congregations 
in  London,  two  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England  have 
joined  them,  and  two  men  who  still  occupy  their  pulpits  are 
only  waiting  for  the  call  which  the}r  daily  expect  to  receive. 

February  5th. — Parliament  met  yesterday;  the  King  re- 
ceived with  great  apathy.  The  Tories  have  not  begun  very 
well.  After  boasting  of  their  increase  1  numbers,  and  of  the 


456  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXX. 

great  things  they  had  accomplished  by  elections  during  the 
recess,  they  got  beaten  on  a  division  b}r  41 — a  greater  num- 
ber than  they  were  ever  beaten  by  last  year  on  any  great 
question.  The  speech  was  a  very  milk-and-water  production, 
and  scarcely  afforded  a  peg  to  hang  an  amendment  upon.  It 
is  true  that  on  the  point  on  which  the  amendment  was  made 
(not  pledging  the  House  to  adopt  the  principle  of  the  English 
Corporation  Act  in  the  Irish  Bill)  the  Duke  was  probably 
right,  but  a  protest  would  have  done  just  as  well,  and  there 
was  no  need  to  press  an  amendment  on  such  a  trifle.  The 
other  side  felt  this  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  gave  it  up, 
though  there  were  so  many  Ministerial  Peers  in  the  House 
that  the  division  would  have  been  very  near;  but  in  the  House 
of  Commons  Lord  John  Russell  would  not  give  way,  and  what 
is  more,  Peel  never  had  any  intention  of  moving  any  amend- 
ment, for  there  was  a  great  meeting  in  the  morning  at  his 
house,  and  there  it  was  resolved  that  none  should  be  moved  ; 
and  certainly  very  few  people  expected  any.  At  last  he 
moved  it,  because  it  had  been  moved  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
but  it  seems  to  have  been  a  foolish,  bungling  business  alto- 
gether. The  Tories  are  always  hot  for  dividing,  and  the  silly, 
idle  creatures  who  compose  the  bulk  of  the  party  apologize  for 
their  continual  absence  by  saying,  "  Oh,  you  never  divide,  so 
what's  the  use  of  coming  up?"  as  if  divisions  must  be  got  up 
for  them  when  it  suits  their  convenience  to  quit  their  hunting 
and  shooting  and  run  up  to  town.  Stanley  made  a  strong 
speech  against  the  Government,  to  my  great  amazement,  and, 
having  been  ironically  cheered  by  the  Treasury  bench,  he  got 
angry.  He  sat,  too,  on  the  Opposition  bench  (the  same  on 
which  Peel  sits),  nearer  the  Speaker;  still  I  do  not  believe 
that  he  will  join  the  Opposition;  however,  they  are  sur- 
prised and  pleased  at  the  tone  h$  took.  Some  fancy  that  the 
division  and  majority  last  night  will  be  useful  to  the  Govern- 
ment, and  make  it  out  to  be  very  important,  which,  however, 
I  think  is  making  much  more  of  it  than  it  deserves.  The  de- 
bate was  very  bad ;  everybody  spoke  wretchedly. 

February  6th. — I  only  heard  last  night  what  passed  at 
Peel's  meeting ;  for  he  desired  it  might  not  be  repeated,  and 
that  the  meeting  should  be  considered  confidential ;  he  made 
them  a  speech,  in  which  he  indicated  in  pretty  plain  terms, 
but  without  mentioning  names,  that  it  was  of  great  conse- 
quence to  shape  their  proceedings  so  as  to  get  the  support  of 


1836.]  LORD   HOLLAND'S   ANECDOTES.  457 

Stanley,  and  that  the}7  never  would  be  sure  what  line  he 
would  take ;  so  that  he  does  look  to  Stanley,  notwithstanding 
what  Lyndhurst  says  of  his  real  sentiments  concerning  him, 
which,  no  doubt,  is  correct. 

February  "th. — Last  night  I  went  to  Holland  House; 
found  my  Lord  and  my  Lady  sitting  t£te-d-t£te.  About  twelve 
she  went  to  bed,  and  Standish  and  I  staid  with  him  till 
two  o'clock,  hearing  his  accounts  of  speeches  and  speakers 
of  old  times,  and  anecdotes,  some  of  which  I  had  heard 
before,  and  some  not,  but  they  bear  repeating.  He  is  mar- 
velously  entertaining  in  this  way ;  the  stories  so  good,  so 
well  told,  his  imitations  of  the  actors  in  the  events  which  lie 
narrates  giving  you  such  a  conviction  of  their  fidelity.  If 
Lord  Holland  has  -prepared  an}-  memoirs,  and  put  down  all  he 
remembers,  as  well  as  all  he  has  been  personally  concerned 
in,  it  will  make  a  delightful  book.  I  asked  him  if  his  uncle 
and  Pitt  were  in  habits  of  communication  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  on  terms  of  mutual  civility  and  good-humor, 
and  he  said  :  "  Oh  yes,  very ;  I  think  they  had  a  great  respect 
for  each  other;  latterly  I  think  my  uncle  was  more  bitter 
against  him" — I  inquired  whether  he  thought  they  would 
have  joined  ?  He  thought  they  might  have  done  so.  He 
thinks  the  finest  speeches  Fox  made  (if  it  were  possible  to 
select  out  of  so  many  fine  ones)  were  on  the  war,  on  the 
Scrutiny,  and  on  Bonaparte's  overtures.  Grattan  compli- 
menting him  on  his  speech  on  the  war,  he  said:  ';I  don't 
know  if  it  was  good,  but  I  know  I  can't  make  a  better." 
Fox  never  wrote  his  speeches,  was  fond  of  preparing  them  in 
traveling,  as  he  said  a  post-chaise  was  the  best  place  to  ar- 
range his  thoughts  in.  Sheridan  wrote  and  prepared  a  great 
deal,  and  generally  in  bed,  with  his  books,  pen,  and  ink,  on 
the  bed,  where  he  would  lie  all  day.  Brougham  wrote  and 
rewrote,  over  and  over  again,  whole  speeches ;  he  has  been 
known  to  work  fifteen  hours  a  day  for  six  weeks  together. 

•It  is  inconceivable  the  effect  the  division  on  the  address 
has  had.  Holland  said  last  night  he  thought  it  had  given 
them  a  new  lease,  and  Hobhouse,  whom  1  met  in  the  morn- 
ing in  high  glee,  talked  with  great  contempt  of  the  tactics 
and  miserable  composition  of  the  Tory  party.  He  said  that 
he  knew  to  a  vote  what  their  numbers  would  be  on  the 
Church  question,  and  on  every  thing  else  they  should  beat 
them  hollow  (he  did  not  mean,  of  course,  to  include  the  Irish 

42 


1-58  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXX. 

Corporation  Bill  in  this).  The  sensible  Tories  admit  it  to 
have  been  a  great  blunder,  but  the  authors  of  the  folly  affect 
to  blaster  and  put  a  good  face  on  it,  though  it  is  easy  to  sec 
that  they  arc  really  in  doleful  dumps.  But  of  all  bad  hits 
Stanley  certainly  made  the  worst.  He  went  on  to  the  last 
moment  living  with  the  Ministers  with  the  utmost  cordiality, 
and  giving  them  to  understand  that'he  was  generally  friendly 
to  them ;  talked  strong  anti-Tory  language,  and  impressed  on 
them  the  conviction  that  he  was  with  them  on  every  thing- 
hut  the  Church.  (Exactly  like  his  conduct  to  Peel  and  his 
former  colleagues  on  the  matter  of  Free  Trade  when  ho 
separated  from  them — 1847.)  If  he  had  contented  himself 
with  declaring  that  he  did  not  mean  to  be  committed  to  any 
particular  course  by  the  address,  and  deprecated  a  division, 
he  would  not  only  have  prevented  it,  but  he  would  have  at 
once  placed  himself  in  a  respectable  position,  as  a  sort  of 
mediator  and  arbiter  between  the  two  parties,  and  would 
have  had  the  satisfaction  of  showing  the  world  that  both  were 
disposed  to  treat  him  with  deference  and  respect.  A  word 
from  Stanley  would  have  made  Peel  abstain  from  moving  his 
amendment  or  withdraw  it.  I  met  Graham  the  day  before 
yesterday  in  the  Park,  but  only  exchanged  a  few  words  with 
him.  He  said  the  division  was  a  very  bad  business. 

February  9th. — I  was  talking  yesterday  with  Stephen 
about  Brougham  and  Macaulay.  He  said  he  had  known 
Brougham  above  thirty  years,  and  well  remembers  walking 
with  him  down  to  Clapham,  to  dine  with  old  Zachary  Macau- 
lay,  and  telling  him  he  would  find  a  prodigy  of  a  boy  there 
of  whom  he  must  take  notice.  This  was  Tom  Macaulay. 
Brougham  afterward  put  himself  forward  as  the  monitor  and 
director  of  the  education  of  Macaulay,  and  I  remember  hear- 
ing of  a  letter  he  wrote  to  the  father  on  the  subject,  which 
made  a  great  noise  at  the  time;  but  he  was  like  the  man  who 
brought  up  a  young  lion,  which  finished  by  biting  his  head  off. 
Brougham  and  Macaulay  disliked  each  other.  Brougham 
could  not  forgive  his  great  superiority  in  many  of  those  ac- 
complishments in  which  he  thought  himself  unrivaled  ;  and 
being  at  no  pains  to  disguise  his  jealousy  and  dislike,  the 
other  was  not  behind  him  in  corresponding  feelings  of  aver- 
sion. It  was  unworthy  of  both,  but  most  of  Brougham,  who 
was  the  aggressor,  and  who  might  have  considered  the  world 
largo  enough  for  both  of  them,  and,  that  a  sufficiency  of  fame 


1833.]  MACAULAY   AND  BROUGHAM.  459 

wag  attainable  by  each.  Stephen  said  that,  if  ever  Macaulay's 
life  was  written  by  a  competent  biographer,  it  would  appear 
that  he  had  displayed  feats  of  memory  which  he  believed  to 
be  unequaled  by  any  human  being.  He  can  repeat  all  De- 
mosthenes by  heart,  and  all  Milton,  a  great  part  of  the  Bible, 
both  in  English  and  (the  New  Testament)  in  Greek  ;  besides 
this  his  memory  retains  passages  innumerable  of  every  de- 
scription of  books,  which  in  discussion  he  pours  forth  with 
incredible  facility.  He  is  passionately  fond  of  Greek  liter- 
ature; has  not  much  taste  for  Latin  or  French.  Old  Mill  (one 
of  the  best  Greek  scholars  of  the  day)  thinks  Macaulay  has  a 
more  extensive  and  accurate  acquaintance  with  the  Greek 
writers  than  any  man  living,  and  there  is  no  Greek  book  of 
any  note  which  he  has  not  read  over  and  over  again.  In  the 
Bible  he  takes  great  delight,  and  there  are  few  better  Biblical 
scholars.  In  law  he  made  no  proficiency,  and  mathematics  he 
abominates;  but  his  great  forte  is  history,  especially  English 
history.  Here  his  superhuman  memory,  which  appears  to 
have  the  faculty  of  digesting  and  arranging  as  well  as  of  re- 
taining, has  converted  his  mind  into  a  mighty  magazine  of 
knowledge,  from  which,  with  the  precision  and  correctness  of 
a  kind  of  intellectual  machine,  he  pours  forth  stores  of  learn- 
ing, information,  precept,  example,  anecdote,  and  illustration 
with  a  familiarity  and  facility  not  less  astonishing  than  de- 
lightful. He  writes  as  if  he  had  lived  in  the  times  and  among 
the  people  whose  actions  and  characters  he  records  and  de- 
lineates. A  little  reading,  too,  is  enough  for  Macaulay,  for 
by  some  process  impossible  to  other  men  he  contrives  to  trans- 
fer as  it  were,  by  an  impression  rapid  and  indelible,  the  con- 
tents of  the  books  he  reads  to  his  own  mind,  where  they  are 
deposited,  always  accessible,  and  never  either  forgotten  or 
confused.  Far  superior  to  Brougham  in  general  knowledge, 
in  fancy,  imagination,  and  in  the  art  of  composition,  he  is 
greatly  inferior  to  him  in  those  qualities  which  raise  men  to 
social  and  political  eminence.  Brougham,  tall,  thin,  and  com- 
ma nding  in  figure,  with  a  face  which,  however  ugly,  is  full  of 
expression,  and  a  voice  of  great  power,  variety,  and  even 
melody,  notwithstanding  his  occasional  prolixity  and  tedious- 
ness,  is  an  orator  in  every  sense  of  the  word.  Macaulay,  short, 
fat,  and  ungraceful,  with  a  round,  thick,  unmeaning  face,  and 
with  rather  a  lisp,  though  he  has  made  speeches  of  great 
merit,  and  of  a  very  high  style  of  eloquence  in  point  of  com- 


460  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXX. 

position,  has  no  pretensions  to  be  put  in  competition  with 
Brougham  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Nor  is  the  difference 
and  the  inferiority  of  Macaulay  less  marked  in  society.  Ma- 
caulay,  indeed,  is  a  great  talker,  and  pours  forth  floods  of 
knowledge  on  all  subjects;  but  the  gracefulness,  lightness, 
and  variety,  are  wanting  in  his  talk  which  are  so  conspicuous 
in  his  writings;  there  is  not  enough  of  alloy  in  the  metal  of 
his  conversation ;  it  is  too  didactic,  it  is  all  too  good,  and  not 
sufficiently  flexible,  plastic,  and  diversified,  for  general  society. 
Brougham,  on  the  other  hand,  is  all  life,  spirit,  and  gayety — 
"  from  grave  to  gay,  from  lively  to  severe  " — dashing  through 
every  description  of  folly  and  fun,  dealing  in  those  rapid  tran- 
sitions by  which  the  attention  and  imagination  are  arrested 
and  excited  ;  always  amusing,  always  instructive,  never  tedi- 
ous, elevated  to  the  height  of  the  greatest  intellect,  and 
familiar  with  the  most  abstruse  subjects,  and  at  the  same 
moment  conciliating  the  humble  pretensions  of  inferior  minds 
by  dropping  into  the  midst  of  their  pursuits  and  objects  with 
a  fervor  and  intensity  of  interest  which  surprises  and  de- 
lights his  associates,  and,  above  all,  which  puts  them  at  their 
ease. 

[  Quantum  mutatus  !  All  this  has  long  ceased  to  be  true 
of  Brougham.  Macaulay,  without  having  either  the  wit  or 
the  charm  which  constitutes  the  highest  kind  of  colloquial 
excellence  or  success,  is  a  marvelous,  an  unrivaled  (in  his 
way),  and  a  delightful  talker. — 1850.] 

February  12th. — Lord  William  Bentinck  has  published  an 
address  to  the  electors  of  Glasgow  which  is  remarkable,  be- 
cause he  is  the  first  man  of  high  rank  and  station  who  has 
publicly  professed  the  ultra-Radical  opinions  which  he  avows 
in  this  document.  It  is  by  no  means  well  done,  and  a  very 
silly  address  in  many  respects.  Pie  is  a  man  whose  success  in 
life  has  been  greater  than  his  talents  warrant,  for  he  is  not 
right-headed,  and  has  committed  some  great  blunder  or  other 
in  every  public  situation  in  which  he  has  been  placed;  but  he 
is  simple  in  his  habits,  popular  in  his  manners,  liberal  in  his 
opinions,  and  magnificently  hospitable  in  his  mode  of  life. 
These  qualities  are  enough  to  insure  popularity.  Here  is  the 
inscription  for  the  column,  or  whatever  it  be,  that  they  have 
erected  to  his  honor  in  India,  written  by  Macaulay : 


1836.]          MONUMENT   TO   LORD  WILLIAM  BENTINCK.  461 

TO 
WILLIAM  CAVENDISH  BENTINCK, 

•WHO  DURING   SEVEN  YEARS  RULED  INDIA.  WITH  EMINENT  PRUDENCE, 

INTEGRITY,  AND  BENEVOLENCE  ; 
WHO,   PLACED  AT  THE  HEAD   OF  A  GREAT  EMPIRE,   NEVER  LAID  ASIDE  THE 

SIMPLICITY  AND  MODERATION  OF  A  PRIVATE   CITIZEN  J 

WHO    INFUSED    INTO    ORIENTAL    DESPOTISM    THE     SPIRIT    OF    BRITISH    FREEDOM'. 
WHO   NEVER  FORGOT  THAT  THE  END   OF   GOVERNMENT  IS  THE   HAPPINESS 

OF  THE   GOVERNED  ; 

WHO  ABOLISHED   CRUEL  RITES  ; 

WHO   EFFACED  HUMILIATING   DISTINCTIONS  ; 

WHO    GAVE   LIBERTY   TO   THE   EXPRESSION   OF   PUBLIC    OPINION; 

WHOSE   CONSTANT  STUDY  IT  WAS  TO  ELEVATE  THE   INTELLECTUAL  AND   MOKAL 

CHARACTER  OF  THE  NATIONS  COMMITTED  TO  HIS  CHARGE; 

THIS  MONUMENT 

WAS     ERECTED     BY    MEN 
WHO,     DIFFERING    IN     RACE,     IN    MANNERS,    IN    LANGUAGE,    AND    IN    RELIGION 

CHERISH  WITH  EQUAL  VENERATION  AND   GRATITUDE 
THE  MEMORY  OF  HIS   WISE,   UPRIGHT,   AND  PATERNAL  ADMINISTRATION. 

February  20th. — I  walked  home  with  Lord  Sandon  last 
night,  and  had  much  talk  about  the  state  of  parties,  particu- 
larly about  Peel  and  the  events  at  the  close  of  the  last  session. 
He  talked  upon  the  usual  topic  of  Peel's  coldness,  uncom- 
municative disposition,  want  of  popular  qualities,  and  the 
consequent  indifference  of  his  followers  to  his  person.  With 
respect  to  last  year,  he  said  that  Peel  had  arranged  with  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  and  Lyndhurst  the  course  that  it  would 
be  advisable  to  adopt  with  regard  to  the  Corporation  Bill,  and 
that  ho  was  put  exceedingly  out  of  humor  by  the  House  of 
Lords  adopting  a  different  line ;  that  the  leaders  of  the  Lords 
found  their  party  impracticable,  and  they  were  compelled  (or 
thought  themselves  so)  to  give  way  to  the  prejudices  of  the 
majority.  But  Peel  did  not  understand  this  knocking  under 
to  violence  and  folly,  and  his  pride  was  mortified,  because  it 


4:62  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CIIAP.  XXX. 

was  a  sort  of  renunciation  of  his  authority  as  leader  and  chief 
of  the  whole  party.  Accordingly  it  was  with  reference  to 
these  proceedings  that  Peel  spoke  with  great  bitterness  to 
Sandon,  and  said  that  "  he  never  would  be  the  tool  of  the 
Lords."  He  left  town  in  high  dudgeon,  and  was  probably  not 
sorry  to  display  his  resentment  at  the  same  time  with  his 
power,  when  he  suddenly  returned  and  made  his  speech  on  the 
Lords'  amendments.  Sandon  confirmed  the  statement  of  his 
having  done  this  without  any  communication  with  the  Duke 
and  Lyndhurst,  in  which  he  thinks  he  was  to  blame.  I  think 
he  ought  to  have  seen  the  Duke,  and  have  imparted  to  him 
his  intentions  and  his  motives;  but  with  Lyndhurst  he  proba- 
bly felt  very  angry  for  the  part  he  took.  He  has  now,  how- 
ever, put  himself  more  openly  and  decidedly  at  the  head  of 
the  party,  and  Sandon  considers  that  Stanley  already  virtually 
belongs  to  it,  inasmuch  as  they  sit  together  and  consult  to- 
gether, and  the  other  day  when  he  went  to  Peel's  house  he 
found  Stanley  there. 

February  21s?. — There  is  a  mighty  stir  about  the  appoint- 
ment of  Dr.  Hampden  to  the  Regius  Professorship  of  Divin- 
ity at  Oxford,  on  the  ground  of  his  having  put  forth  doctrines 
or  arguments  of  a  Socinian  tendency.  The  two  Archbishops 
went  to  Melbourne  with  a  remonstrance,  but  he  told  them  the 
appointment  was  completed,  and  that  he  had  not  been  aware 
of  any  objections  to  Dr.  Hampden,  and  had  taken  pains  to  as- 
certain his  fitness  for  the  office.  It  will  give  the  Churchmen 
a  handle  for  accusing  Melbourne  of  a  design  to  sap  the  foun- 
dations of  the  Church  and  poison  the  fountain  of  orthodoxy  ; 
but  he  certainly  has  no  such  vie\v. 

February  23d. — Had  some  conversation  with  Lord  Wharn- 
cliffe  the  other  day,  who  has  always  been  a  great  alarmist.  I 
asked  him  if  he  was  so  still.  He  said  yes ;  that  he  was  con- 
vinced the  House  of  Lords  and  the  House  of  Commons  could 
not  go  on,  that  the  Lords  would  not  pass  their  bills  ;  a  fer- 
ment would  be  produced,  which  would  finish  by  an  open  dis- 
sension. "  What,  then,  would  be  the  result  ?  "  I  asked.  "Why, 
the  Lords  would  be  beaten."  He  then  complained  bitterly  of 
the  Government,  and  of  their  conduct  and  language,  and  said 
he  was  convinced  Lord  John  Russell  had  originally  introduced 
that  clause  for  the  purpose  of  effecting  a  permanent  quarrel 
between  the  two  Houses.  I  told  him  I  was  satisfied  there  was 
no  danger  if  their  party  would  act  a  prudent,  temperate,  and 
honorable  part ;  if  they  would  not  aim  at  office,  but  be  satis- 


1836.]  DR.    IIAMPDEN'S   APPOINTMENT.  463 

fied  to  exert  the  strength  they  possessed  not  for  party,  but  for 
Conservative  purposes  ;  and  on  this  I  dilated,  showing1  what 
they  ought  to  do.  He  said  that  the  Tories  never  would  be 
contented  so  to  act.  "  Then,"  I  said,  "  I  certainly  won't  pre- 
tend to  answer  for  the  consequences,  but  I  am  sure  you  have 
a  good  game  enough  in  your  hands,  if  you  choose  to  play  it ; 
if  you  will  throw  it  away,  that  is  another  thing."  He  told 
me  one  thing  of  Melbourne  rather  droll.  Wharncliffe  gave 
notice  of  a  motion  (which  comes  on  to-night)  about  Lord  John 
Russell's  appointment  of  magistrates  under  the  new  Act, 
which  he  declares  to  have  been  very  partially  and  improperly 
done.  After  speaking  to  Melbourne  about  it,  Melbourne  came 
over  to  him  (Wharncliffe)  and  said,  "  Now,  tell  me,  have  we 
been  very  bad  in  our  appointments  ?  " 

Last  night  I  sat  next  to  Poulett  Thomson  at  dinner, 
who  told  me  a  great  deal  about  Dr.  Hampden's  appointment,1 
which  makes  such  an  uproar  among  the  Tories  and  High 
Churchmen.  He  declares  that  Melbourne  consulted  various 
authorities,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  among  the 
rest,  who  made  no  objection  to  the  appointment ;  that  when 
the  Oxford  remonstrance  was  sent  up  the  Archbishop  wrcte 
a  very  Jesuitical  letter,  in  which  he  endeavored  to  reconcile 
his  former  approbation  of  the  appointment  with  his  present 
concurrence  in  the  remonstrance.  Melbourne  sent  for  him, 
and  asked  whether  he  had  any  charge  to  make  against 
Hampden ;  he  replied  that  he  had  none ;  when  Melbourne 
said  that  he  could  not,  then,  cancel  the  appointment, 
which  had  been  already  notified  to  him.  [This  account  of 
Poulett  Thomson's  was,  however,  untrue.  William  Cowper, 
Melbourne's  private  secretary  and  nephew,  gave  me  another, 
which  I  doubt  not  is  more  correct,  and  puts  the  matter  in  a 
very  different  point  of  view.  Melbourne  sent  to  the  Arch- 
bishop and  desired  him  to  give  him  a  list  of  six  names,  which 
he  accordingly  did ;  but  Melbourne  would  not  take  any  of 
them,  and  without  consulting  the  Archbishop  about  Hamp- 
den, appointed  him.  He  did  consult  Coplestone  and  some 
others,  but  not  the  Archbishop.  I  believe  the  cry  against 
Hampden  to  be  a  senseless  cry,  and  that  it  is  raised  by  mere 
bigotry  and  spite,  but  I  think  Melbourne  behaved  neither 
prudently  nor  properly.  When  he  desired  the  Archbishop  to 
give  him  a  list  of  six,  the  latter  must  certainly  have  conceived 

»  [This  was  the  appointment  of  Dr.  Harapden  to  bti  Regius  Professor  of 
Divinity  at  Oxford.    He  was  raised  to  the  See  of  Hereford  in  1348.] 


464  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXX. 

that  be  would  select  one  out  of  the  number,  and  would  net 
luive  divined  that  he  would  pass  them  all  over  and  appoint 
another  man  without  consulting  him  at  all. — February  2Sth.\ 
I  have  read  the*  pamphlet  written  against  Hampden,  and 
though  some  of  his  expressions  are  perhaps  imprudent  as 
giving  occasion  to  malicious  cavil,  it  contains  no  grave  mat- 
ter, and  nothing  to  support  an  accusation  of  heterodoxy.  If 
he  had  been  a  Tory  instead  of  a  Liberal  in  politics,  we  should 
probably  have  heard  nothing  of  the  matter. 

I  was  surprised  to  hear  Poulett  Thomson  talk  in  great 
indignation  of  Lord  William  Bentinck's  address  to  Glasgow, 
which  he  characterized  as  very  disgraceful,  and  asserted  that 
such  miserable  truckling  to  the  will  of  his  constituents  would 
not  avail  him  any  thing,  but  rather  diminish  their  respect  for 
him — very  good  sentiments.  The  Government  are  very  angry 
at  what  took  place  about  the  Orange  Lodge  resolutions.  Mr. 
Jervis  moves  an  address  to  the  Crown  to-night,  and  Perceval 
proposed  to  Lord  John  Russell  to  draw  up  some  resolution 
condemning  these  associations,  which  he  said  they  would 
agree  to  if  not  violent  and  offensive,  and  that  it  was  very 
desirable  the  sentiments  of  the  House  of  Commons  should 
be  expressed  unanimously,  or  by  a  very  large  majority, 
because  in  that  case  the  Orangemen  would  see  the  necessity 
of  yielding  obedience  to  them,  and  would  do  so.  Accord- 
ingly John  Russell  sent  him  the  copy  of  a  resolution  (on  Sat- 
urday) which  he  proposed  to  bring  forward,  but  which  he  said 
he  had  not  yet  submitted  to  the  Cabinet.  This  was  commu- 
nicated to  Peel  and  Stanley  as  well,  and  all  parties  agreed  to 
it;  but  John  Russell  was  much  surprised  and  disgusted  when 
this  resolution  (which  was  communicated  quite  privately  to 
Perceval,  and  which  he  told  him  his  colleagues  had  not  been 
as  yet  consulted  about)  appeared  yesterday  morning  in  the 
Times. 

February  25th. — Lord  John  Russell  immortalized  himself 
on  Tuesday  night.  After  a  speech  from  Hume  of  three 
hours,  in  which  he  produced  a  variety  of  the  most  incon- 
ceivable letters  from  Kenyon,  Wynford,  Londonderry,  and 
other  Orangemen,  but  made  the  most  miserable  hash  of  his 
whole  case,  and  instead  of  working  up  bis  ample  materials 
with  dexterity  and  effect,  stupidly  blundering  and  wasting 
them  all — after  this  speech  John  Russell  rose,  and  in  a 
speech  far  surpassing  his  usual  form,  dignified,  temperate, 
and  judicious,  moved  a  resolution  of  a  moderate  and  inoffen- 


1836.]  LORD   RUSSELL  AND   THE   ORANGEMEN.  4G5 

sive  character.  The  speech  actually  drew  tears  from  the 
Orangemen,  enthusiastic  apprDbation  from  Stanley,  a  colder 
approval  from  Peel,  and  the  universal  assent  of  the  House. 
It  was  a  night  of  harmony ;  the  Orangemen  behaved  very 
well,  and  declared  that  after  this  speech  they  would  aban- 
don their  association ;  they  only  objected  to  the  Orange 
Lodges  being  mentioned  by  name,  and  urged  that  the  resolu- 
tion should  be  only  general  in  expression ;  and  in  this  Stanley 
and  Peel  supported  them  ;  Lord  John  declined,  and  properly ; 
the  others  would  have  done  better  to  advise  the  Orangemen  not 
to  cavil  at  this,  but  to  swallow  the  whole  pill  handsomely, 
and  not  mar  the  effect  of  their  really  meritorious  conduct  by 
making  any  trivial  difficulties.  Peel's  and  Stanley's  speeches 
were  characteristic ;  the  latter  with  a  generous  enthusiasm  of 
praise  and  congratulation  to  his  old  friend,  which  evinced 
feeling  and  was  sincere ;  Peel  colder  in  his  expressions,  and 
showing  a  great  interest  in  the  Orangemen,  for  the  purpose 
evidently  of  conciliating  them  toward  himself,  and  even  in- 
curring some  risk  of  disturbing  the  general  harmony  by  his 
warmth  and  sympathy  toward  them ;  but  I  have  no  doubt 
that  he  is  as  glad  as  any  man  at  the  dissolution  of  the  con- 
federacy, which  now  appears  likely  really  to  take  place,  for 
though  they  will  probably  not  actually  dissolve  themselves, 
when  the  chiefs  abandon  the  lodges  their  existence  will  be 
but  a  lingering  one,  and  must  come  to  an  end  or  cease  to  be 
dangerous.  In  accomplishing  this  by  moderate  and  healing 
counsels,  by  a  conciliatory  tone  and  manner,  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell deserves  the  name  of  a  statesman.  His  speech  is  worth 
a  thousand  flowery  harangues  which  have  elicited  the  shouts 
of  audiences  or  the  admiration  of  readers,  and  he  has  prob- 
ably conferred  a  great  and  permanent  benefit  upon  the 
country.  I  do  not  mean  that  peace  will  be  by  these  means 
restored  to  Ireland,  or  rather  be  bestowed  on  her,  for  when 
was  she  ever  at  peace  ?  but  until  this  object  was  accomplished, 
till  the  way  was  cleared,  peace  was  unattainable.  O'Connell 
behaved  wisely  ;  he  made  a  short  speech,  and  fell  in  cordially 
with  the  general  feeling  of  the  House.  This  has  strengthened 
the  Government  in  reality,  as  it  ought.  So  Lord  Stanley 
said,  and  it  is  true. 


166  REIGN  OF   WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 


CHAPTER    XXXI. 

Moore  and  O'Connell — Defeat  of  the  Opposition— The  Carlow  Election— Lord  Alvanley's 
Speech  to  the  Tory  Peers — Norton  vs.  Lord  Melbourne — Catastrophe  at'tei-  Epsom — 
Mendizabal  and  Queen  Christina — Lord  John  Russell's  Moderation  in  the  Ecclesiastical 
Commission — Theatricals  at  Bridgewater  House — Irish  Church — Ministerial  Difficulties 
—Deplorable  State  of  Spain— What  was  thought  of  Lord  Palmerston  in  1836— Weak- 
ness of  Government — Lord  Lyndhurst's  Summary  of  the  Session — Balance  of  Parties — 
Lady  Augusta  Kennedy's  Marriage — King's  Speech  to  Princess  Victoria— Revolution 
of  La  Granja — Rudeness  of  the  King  to  Ministers — Irritation  of  the  King  at  the  Duchess 
of  Kent — Scene  at  Windsor  on  the  King's  Birthday — Prince  Esterhazy's  View  of  the 
Affairs  of  Europe — Emperor  Nicholas  at  Vienna — A"  Crisis  in  Trade — State  of  the  Court 
at  Vienna— Due  de  Reichstadt. 

March  8th. — It  is  impossible  to  conceive  any  thing  like 
the  stagnation  in  the  political  world — the  Government  secure 
in  their  seats,  the  Opposition  aware  of  the  helplessness  of 
their  efforts.  I  met  Moore  1  at  dinner  a  day  or  two  ago,  not 
having  seen  him  for  a  long  time.  He  told  us  some  amusing 
anecdotes  of  his  own  reception  in  Ireland,  which  was  very 
enthusiastic,  in  spite  of  his  having  quarreled  with  O'Connell. 
Of  this  quarrel  he  likewise  narrated  the  beginning  and  the 
end.  He  was  indignant  at  O'Connell's  manner  of  prosecuting 
his  political  objects,  and  resolved  to  put  his  feelings  on  record. 
This  he  did,  and  he  afterward  wrote  some  letters  to  a 
mutual  friend  explanatory  of  his  sentiments  and  motives, 
and  these  were  shown  (intentionally)  to  O'Connell.  Moore  de- 
clined to  retract  or  qualify,  and  a  rupture  consequently  took 
place.  When  they  met  at  Brookes's  O'Connell  averted  his 
face.  So  things  remained  till  a  short  time  ago,  when  the 
editor  of  a  new  quarterly  review,  which  has  been  established 
for  Catholic  and  Irish  objects,  wrote  to  Moore  for  his  sup- 
port, and  O'Connell,  whom  he  told  of  it,  said,  "  Oh,  pray  let 
me  frank  the  letter  to  Mr.  Moore."  This  was  repeated,  and 
when  Moore  met  O'Connell  the  other  day  at  Brookes's,  he 
went  up  to  him  and  put  out  his  hand.  He  said  O'Conuell 
was  mightily  moved,  but  accepted  the  proffered  reconciliation, 
and  they  are  again  on  good  terms. 

March  1.0th. — Majority  of  64  for  Government  on  Tuesday 
night ;  unexpected  by  the  public,  but  not,  I  take  it,  by  the 
Whig  managers,  who  make  their  people  attend.  It  is  an 
irrecoverable  blow  to  the  other  side,  and  shows  that  the 
contest  is  hopeless  there.  O'Connell  and  Stanley  made  good 
speeches.  It  is  remarkable  that  the  Tory  numbers  are  pre- 

1  [Thomas  Moore,  the  poet.] 


ISSfi.]  OPPOSITION   DEFEATED.  467 

cisely  what  the}*  were  last  year  (243).  At  the  levee  yesterday 
they  were  all  very  gay  at  this  victory ;  and  Hobhouse  said  to 
me:  "What  fools  they  arel  they  don't  know  their  own 
interest ;  they  are  beaten  in  the  House  of  Commons,  their 
people  won't  attend,  they  won't  see  that  they  can't  resist 
these  questions  and  that  it  is  for  their  own  interest  they 
should  be  carried ;  why,  when  the  appropriation  clauses  and 
these  Bills  are  carried  there  will  remain  no  difference  between 
Peel  and  us.  As  for  me,  I  care  not  who  is  in,  or  whether  I 
am  in  or  out  of  office ;  I  care  for  peace  and  quietness,  and  that 
the  country  should  go  on.  The  Tories  have  rung  the  changes 
on  this  O'Connell  cry  till  they  can  do  no  more,  and  it  has 
failed  them  entirely  ;  they  have  had  every  chance,  and  must 
now  give  it  up ; "  and  a  good  deal  more  he  said,  till  we  were 
interrupted.  I  agree  about  the  O'Connell  cry ;  the  subject  is 
worn  threadbare,  it  has  been  argued  and  ranted  upon  usque 
ad  nauseam,  and  in  spite  of  the  mistakes  O'Connell  has 
made,  the  anti-Popery  prejudices  which  prevail,  and  the  blots 
upon  his  personal  character,  I  doubt  if  he  is  as  much  hated  in 
England  as  the  Tories  would  have  him.  They  have  overdone 
their  attacks  on  him,  and  as  it  has  unluckily  been  their  sole 
cheval  de  bataille,  they  have  ridden  it  till  it  has  not  got  a  leg 
to  stand  upon. 

March  12£/t. — Fell  in  with  Lyndhurst  in  the  street  yester- 
day returning  from  Philips's,  where  he  had  been  sitting  for 
his  portrait.  "Well,"  he  said,  in  his  laughing,  off-hand  way, 
"  we  are  done,  entirely  done."  "  What  do  you  mean  to  do  ?'" 
''  Oh,  we  shall  pass  Peel's  Bill,  and  they  will  be  very  glad  of  it; 
it  will  give  the  Government  all  the  power  which  O'Ccnnell 
would  otherwise  obtain,  and  they  don't  want  to  see  his  power 
increase,  and  will  prefer  the  augmentation  of  their  own." 

March  13th. — It  was  only  yesterday  that  I  read  the  report 
of  the  Committee  and  O'Connell's  complete  acquittal.1  It  is 
very  singular  that  he  does  not  seem  to  have  known  his  own 
case,  or  he  might  have  rebutted  the  accusations  in  the  first 
instance ;  but  it  has  turned  out  lucky  for  him,  as  it  has  afforded 
him  a  great  triumph  and  his  adversaries  an  equally  great  mor- 
tification. It  is  now  time  for  the  Tories  to  give  up  attacking 

1  [The  proceedings  of  the  Committee  on  the  Carlow  election  are  here  re- 
ferred to.  A  Mr.  Raphael  had  been  returned  for  Carlow,  chiefly  by  the  influ- 
ence of  O'Connell.  He  was  unseated  on  petition,  and  it  was  supposed  that  the 
evidence  taken  by  the  Committee  would  incriminate  O'Connell,  but  the  reverse 
was  the  case.  O'Connell  was  wholly  acquitted  of  any  illegal  or  improper 
practices.] 


468  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

him — that  is,  making  him  their  grand  political  butt.  They  do 
not  lower  him;  on  the  contrary,  they  raise  his  importance 
everywhere,  and  make  his  sway  in  Ireland  more  absolute. 
They  are  abominably  sulky  at  this  result  of  the  Committee, 
which,  however,  was  fairly  constituted  and  unanimous  in  its 
decision.  I  must  say  1  never  expected  they  would  mako  out 
much  of  a  case.  Yesterday  I  dined  with  Ban  Stanley  in 
Downing  Street,  and  met  Lytton  Bulwer  and  Fonblanque,  the 
latter  a  very  agreeable  man. 

May  2d. — Manv  weeks  without  a  single  line.  I  have  been 
at  Newmarket,  and  have  known  nothing  of  any  sort  or  kind. 
All  seems  quieter  in  the  political  world  than  for  a  long  time 
past.  There  was  a  meeting  of  Peers  at  Apsley  House  a  week 
or  ten  days  ago,  to  consider  the  course  they  should  adopt 
about  the  Corporation  Bill.  After  the  discussion  Alvanley  rose 
and  asked  the  Duke  if  there  would  be  any  more  meetings. 
He  said  he  was  not  aware  that  there  would  be,  when  Alvanley 
said  that  he  was  of  opinion  that  the  majority  of  the  House 
of  Lords,  while  dealing  with  the  Government  measures,  were 
bound  to  give  notice  to  the  country  of  the  measures  of  relief 
that  they  were  themselves  prepared  to  offer  to  Ireland,  that 
in  his  opinion  the  only  real  relief  that  could  be  given  was 
some  system  of  poor  law,  and  the  payment  of  the  Catholic 
clergy,  bringing  that  body  under  the  control  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  making  it  penal  to  draw  contributions  from  their 
flocks,  and  he  trusted  that  their  Lordships  would  be  prepared 
to  go  so  far.  He  describes  the  effect  of  this  suggestion  to 
have  been  most  ludicrous.  The  Duke  of  Newcastle,  who  sat 
by  him,  was  ready  to  bounce  off  his  chair  ;  all  sorts  of  indis-^ 
tinct  noises,  hems,  grunts,  and  coughs  of  every  variety  of 
modulation  and  expressive  intonation  were  heard,  but  no 
answer  and  no  remark.  He  told  me  that  he  had  intended  on 
Tuesday  last  to  repeat  the  same  thing  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
and  asked  me  to  go  down  and  hear  him,  but  they  would  not 
allow  him.  The  Duke  said  it  was  out  of  the  question,  and 
overruled  him.  I  am  very  sorry  he  did  not,  for  these  are  the 
true  reinedies,  and  I  wish  to  see  them  put  forth,  and  a  begin- 
ning made  of  bringing  such  principles  into  action ;  but  the  Duke 
is  not  the  man  to  let  others  have  the  credit  of  such  measures. 
I  expect  to  see  the  day  when  he  will  bring  them  forward  him- 
self;  it  is  a  pig  not  yet  fit  for  killing,  and  he  will  not  let  any« 
body  stick  it  but  himself. 

May  1.1th. — Great  talk  about  the   adjournment  of  Parlia- 


1836.]  LORD  MELBOURNE  AND   MRS.   NORTON.  469 

ment  on  the  20th,  and  about  Melbourne's  affair  with  Mrs. 
Norton,  which  latter,  if  it  is  not  quashed,  will  be  incon- 
venient. John  Bull  fancies  himself  vastly  moral,  and  the  Court 
is  mighty  prudish,  and  between  them  our  off-hand  Premiei 
will  find  himself  in  a  ticklish  position.  He  has  been  served 
with  notices,  but  people  rather  doubt  the  action  coming  on. 
I  asked  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  a  night  or  two  ago,  what  he 
had  heard  of  it,  and  what  he  thought  would  be  the  result.  He 
said  he  had  only  heard  what  everybody  said,  and  that  nothing 
would  result.  1  said,  "  Would  Melbourne  resign  ?  "  "  O  Lord, 
no  !  Resign  ?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  I  tell  you  all  these  things 
are  a  nine-days'  wonder ;  it  can't  come  into  court  before  Par- 
liament is  up.  People  will  have  done  talking  of  it  before  that 
happens ;  it  will  all  blow  over,  and  won't  signify  a  straw." 
So  spoke  his  Grace.  I  doubt  not  prime  ministers,  ex  and  in, 
have  a  fellow-feeling  and  sympathy  for  each  other,  and  like  to 
lay  down  the  principle  of  such  things  not  mattering.  I  hope, 
however,  that  it  will  blow  over,  for  it  would  really  be  very  in- 
convenient and  very  mischievous.  The  Tories  would  fall  on 
the  individual  from  political  violence,  the  Radicals  on  his  class 
or  order  from  hatred  to  the  aristocracy.  I  believe  the  adjourn- 
ment is  principally  on  account  of  the  affairs  of  Canada,  re- 
garding which  the  Government  is  in  a  difficulty  that  appears 
inextricable.  I  have  heard  a  great  deal  on  the  subject,  enough 
to  show  the  magnitude  of  the  embarrassment,  but  not  enough 
to  describe  the  state  of  things. 

May  25th. — The  Epsom  races  being  over,  which  always 
absorb  every  other  interest,  I  have  leisure  to  turn  my  mind 
to  other  things.  This  year  there  has  been  a  miserable 
catastrophe.  Berkeley  Craven  deliberately  shot  himself  after 
losing  more  than  he  could  pay.  Jt  is  the  first  instance  of  a 
man  of  rank  and  station  in  society  making  such  an  exit.  He 
had  originally  a  large  landed  estate,  strictly  entailed,  got  into 
difficulties,  was  obliged  to  go  abroad,  compromised  with  his 
creditors  and  returned,  fell  into  fresh  difficulties,  involved  him- 
self inextricably  in  betting,  and  went  on  with  a  determina- 
tion to  shoot  himself  if  his  speculations  failed,  and  so  he 
did.  He  was  very  popular,  had  been  extremely  handsome  in 
his  youth,  and  was  a  fellow  of  infinite  pleasantry  and  good- 
humor. 

Lord  Melbourne's  affair  after  all  is  likely  to  come  before 
a  court  of  law.  He  is  very  much  annoyed  at  it,  and  so  are 
his  relations,  but  nobody  expects  him  to  resign.  The  Low 


470  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

Tories,  the  herd,  exult  at  this  misfortune,  and  find  a  motive 
for  petty  political  gratification  in  it,  but  not  so  the  Duke  of 
Wellington  or  any  of  them  who  are  above  the  miserable 
feelings  of  party  spite.  I  am  sorry  for  it,  because  it  is  a 
bad  thing  to  see  men  in  high  places  dragged  through  the 
mire. 

I  have  heard  a  curious  fact  connected  with  the  dismissal 
of  Mendizabal  from  his  post  of  Prime  Minister.  He  made  an 
attempt  on  the  person  of  the  Queen,  which  she  resented  with 
the  greatest  aversion  and  rage.  He  afterward  wrote  an  apol- 
ogy,  and  then,  aware  of  the  blunder  of  so  committing  himself, 
endeavored  to  get  his  letter  back,  which  she  refused  to  part 
with.  The  consequence  was  that  she  availed  herself  of  the  first 
opportunity  to  get  rid  of  him.. 

June  Sth. — Dined  at  St.  James's  yesterday  with  the  Jockey 
Club.  The  King  made  a  speech  about  himself  and  the  Queen 
and  the  turf;  he  told  us  "  the  Queen  was  an  excellent  woman, 
as  we  all  knew,  and  that  of  all  the  societies  which  he  had  to 
entertain  (which  in  his  capacity  were  many  and  varicus)  Ave 
were  the  most  truly  British."  He  was  very  tired,  and  with- 
drew early.  Wharncliffe  said  he  was  weary  and  dejected. 

June  Z^tth. — The  town  has  been  full  of  Melbourne's  trial ;  ' 
great  exultation  at  the  result  on  the  part  of  his  political  adhe- 
rents, great  disappointment  on  that  of  the  mob  of  Low  Tories, 
and  a  creditable  satisfaction  among  the  better  sort ;  it  was  in 
point  of  fact  a  very  triumphant  acquittal.  The  wonder  is  how 
with  such  a  case  Norton's  family  ventured  into  court,  but  (al- 
though it  is  stoutly  denied)  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  old 
Wynford  was  at  the  bottom  of  it  all,  and  persuaded  Lord 
Grantley  to  urge  it  on  for  mere  political  purposes.  There  is 
pretty  conclusive  evidence  of  this.  Fletcher  Norton,  who 
was  examined  on  the  trial,  is  staying  in  town  with  a  Mr. 
Lowe,  a  Nottinghamshire  parson,  and  Denison,  who  is  Nor- 
ton's neighbor,  called  on  him  the  other  day ;  Denison  talked 
to  Lowe,  who  told  him  that  Fletcher  Norton  had  shown  him 
the  case  on  which  they  were  going  to  proceed,  and  that  he 
had  told  him  he  thought  it  was  a  very  weak  one,  to  which  he 
had  replied  so  did  he,  but  he  believed  they  expected  it  would 
produce  a  very  important  political  effect.  The  King  behaved 
very  civilly  about  it,  and  expressed  his  satisfaction  at  the  re- 
sult in  terms  sufficiently  flattering  to  Melbourne. 

1  [The  trial  of  the  cause  Norton  vs.  Lord  Melbourne,  which  ended  in  a  verdict 
for  the  defendant.] 


1836.]  LORD   JOHN   RUSSELL  AS  MEDIATOR.  471 

To-night  is  the  great  night  in  the  House  of  Lords,  when 
they  are  to  deal  with  the  Commons'  amendments  of  the  Muni- 
cipal Bill.  Lord  Grey  is  expected  to  speak,  and  he  told  his 
old  colleagues  that  if  he  did  he  should  say  what  they  would  not 
like.  The  fact  is,  he  is  out  of  humor.  First  he  doesn't  like 
being  laid  aside,  though  he  would  not  own  this  even  to  him- 
self, and  as  he  and  Hovvick  disagree  on  many  points,  Hovvick 
tells  him  nothing,  and  consequently  he  knows  nothing,  and 
this  provokes  him  ;  then  he  is  indignant  at  the  O'Connellism 
of  the  Government,  and  abhors  the  attacks  on  his  order. 
Tavistcck  talked  to  me  a  great  deal  yesterday  about  Lord  John 
Russell,  who  he  declares  is  by  no  means  the  Radical  he  is  ac- 
cused by  his  adversaries  of  being,  that  he  is  opposed  tooth  and 
nail  to  the  reform  of  the  House  of  Lords,  much  disagreeing 
with  O'Connell,  that  he  has  constantly  and  firmly  refused  to 
comply  with  the  demands  of  the  Dissenters  in  the  matter  of 
Church  rates,  and  that  in  the  Ecclesiastical  Commission  he 
and  the  bishops  are  on  the  best  terms,  and  they  are  abundant- 
ly satisfied  with  him,  that  the  greatest  Reformer  there  is  Lord 
IJarrowby,  and  John  Russell  has  had  to  act  as  mediator  be- 
tween him  and  the  bishops.  The  prelates,  it  seems,  have 
grasped  at  patronage  with  all  their  might,  and  have  taken  to 
themselves  that  which  appertained  to  the  chapters,  much  to 
the  disgust  of  the  latter;  they  likewise  endeavored  to  get 
hold  of  that  which  belongs  to  the  Chancellor,  and  on  this  oc- 
casion John  wrote  on  a  slip  of  paper  (which  he  threw  across 
the  table  to  the  Archbishop  of  York),  "  I  don't  object  to  your 
robbing  one  another,  but  I  can't  let  you  rob  the  Crown." 
The  Archbishop  wrote  back,  "  That  is  just  what  I  expected 
from  you."  This  shows  at  least  the  good-humor  that  prevails 
among  them. 

There  has  been  such  a  stagnation  in  politics  latelv  that 
I  have  heard  nothing,  and  having  been  laid  up  with  the  gout 
for  a  fortnight,  have  seen  scarcely  anybody.  The  greatest 
interest  I  have  had  has  been  in  the  dramatic  representation 
at  Bridgewater  House,  to  the  rehearsals  of  which  I  ventured 
to  go.  They  were  very  brilliant  and  successful.  As  the 
space  was  limited,  the  invitations  necessarily  were  so,  and 
everybody  Avas  wild  to  be  there.  There  were  one  or  two 
tracasseries  growing  out  of  the  thing,  agitating  for  the 
moment,  but  very  uninteresting  in  themselves.  The  pieces 
were  "  Glenfinlas,"  taken  from  Walter  Scott's  ballad,  and 
"  Lalla  Rookh,"  from  Moore's  poem  ;  the  principal  performers 


472  EEIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXXI 

were  James  Wortley,  my  brother  Henry,  Mitford,  Mrs.  Brad- 
shaw,  Miss  Kemble  (Mrs.  Sartoris) ;  and  the  chorus  was  com- 
posed of  Mrs.  Baring,  Mrs.  Hartopp,  Miss  Gent,  Miss  Paget, 
Lady  Mary  Paget  (Lady  Sandwich),  Lady  Wallscourt,  Lady 
Georgiana  Mitford,  my  sister,  Lord  Compton,  Messrs.  West- 
macott,  Halford,  James  Macdonald,  Baynton,  Lushington. 
Grieve  painted  beautiful  scenery,  and  the  dresses  were  mag- 
nificent ;  all  the  ladies  were  covered  with  diamonds,  which  the 
great  jewelers  lent  to  them  for  the  occasion.  Mrs.  Brad- 
shaw's  acting  was  perfection  itself,  and  altogether  it  was  sin- 
gular, striking,  and  eminently  successful,  especially  "  Glen- 
finlas,"  which  was  very  ingeniously  managed,  and  went  off  to 
the  amazement  of  those  who  were  concerned  in  it,  who  did  not 
expect  such  success. 

July  \st. — At  Stoke  for  three  days  ;  divine  weather,  pro- 
fusion of  flowers  and  shade,  and  every  luxury  ;  nobody  there 
of  any  consequence.  On  Tuesday  night  at  the  House  of  Lords 
to  hear  the  debate,  which  was  worth  hearing.  Lyndhurst 
spoke  very  ably,  by  far  the  finest  style  of  speaking,  so  meas- 
ured, grave,  and  earnest,  nothing  glittering  and  gaudy,  but.a 
manly  and  severe  style  of  eloquence.  Lord  Grey  spoke  very 
becomingly,  but  was  feeble  compared  with  what  he  used  to 
be.  He  endeavored  to  effect  a  compromise,  and  said  nothing 
offensive  to  anybody  or  any  party,  spoke  strongly  in  favor  of 
the  Ministerial  measure,  and  I  think  took  the  sound  view.  I 
have  no  doubt  the  Tory  Lords  are  all  in  the  wrong  in  taking 
the  course  they  do,  and  their  arguments  are  very  frivolous 
and  inefficient.  O'Connell  was  not  in  the  House  during  Lynd- 
hurst's  philippic,  but  came  in  soon  after,  and  his  arrival  made 
a  great  bustle. 

July  9th.— Since  Monday  (4th)  at  De  Ros's  villa.  The 
division  on  the  appropriation  clause  and  the  majority  of  only 
twenty-six  was  hailed  with  great  triumph  by  the  Tories,  and 
was  a  grievous  disappointment  to  the  Government.  This, 
with  the  Warwickshire  election  at  the  same  moment,  has 
made  them  very  down  in  the  mouth,  and  raised  the  Conserva- 
tive stock  pretty  considerably.  There  was  very  sharp  work 
between  Stanley  and  John  Russell,  who  left  off  noble  friending 
and  took  to  noble  lording  him,  to  show  that  they  were  quite 
two.  The  fact  is  that  they  are  in  a  huge  difficulty  with  this 
appropriation  clause,  which  served  their  turn  for  a  while  (when 
it  turned  out  Peel  and  cemented  their  alliance  with  the  Radi- 
cals), and  now  it  hangs  like  a  millstone  round  (heir  necks,  and 


1836.]  APPROPRIATION   CLAUSE  ABANDONED.  473 

is  not  unlikely  to  produce  the  dissolution  of  the  Government. 
Strange  that  this  Irish  Church  in  one  way  or  another  is  the 
insuperable  obstacle  to  peace  and  tranquillity  in  Ireland,  and 
to  the  stability  of  any  Administration  here ;  and  yet  it  is 
fought  for  as  if  the  prosperity  or  salvation  of  the  State  de- 
pended on  it — 

Tanturn  religio  potuit  suadere  malorum. 

As  far  as  the  Whig  Ministers  are  concerned  it  serves  them 
right,  for  it  was  a  wicked  and  foolish  proceeding ;  their  con- 
duct will  tell  against  them  in  the  country,  and  when  the 
House  of  Lords  is  accused  of  stopping  legislation,  people  will 
not  fail  to  ask,  "What  else  is  the  House  of  Commons  doing,  or 
rather  how  much  more  ?  They  assert  that  tithes  are  the  great 
bane  of  Ireland,  and  the  cause  of  the  disorders  which  prevail, 
and  they  propose  the  Tithe  Bill  as  a  remedy,  but  they  clog  it 
with  a  condition  which  they  know,  with  as  much  certainty  as 
human  knowledge  can  attain,  will  prevent  its  passing  into  a 
law,  and  in  this  shape  they  persist  in  producing  it.  Lord 
John  Russell  and  his  colleagues,  it  is  said,  are  pledged  not  to 
pass  a  Tithe  Bill  without  this  clause ;  but  what  cares  the  pub- 
lic for  their  pledges,  and  what  is  their  consistency  compared 
with  the  great  interests  at  stake,  and  which  are  involved  in 
the  settlement  of  this  question  ? 

They  acted  "  Glenfinlas  "  for  the  last  time  on  Thursday, 
with  greater  success  than  ever.  The  Queen  was  invited,  but 
did  not  come.  All  London  is  intent  upon  morning  amusements 
— morning  parties,  which  are  extended  into  the  night.  The 
Duchess  of  Buccleuch  gave  entertainments  on  Monday  and 
Wednesday  ;  De  Ros  on.  Friday — dinners,  tents,  illuminations, 
and  dancing ;  all  very  gay  for  those  who  can  find  amusement 
in  it,  which  I  have  ceased  to  do. 

July  18th. — On  Thursday  night,  almost  as  scon  as  I  got 
back  from  Newmarket,  I  heard  that  it  was  strongly  suspected 
that  the  Cabinet  were  in  great  embarrassment  about  the  Irish 
Church  question,  and  of  course  the  Tories  were  proportion- 
ably  elated  at  the  visions  of  return  to  office  which  are  always 
ready  to  dance  before  their  eyes.  This  report  was  confirmed 
to  me  the  next  day  (Friday)  by  Lord  Tavistock,  who  told  me 
what  really  was  the  case.  The  late  division  seems  to  have 
made  a  considerable  impression,  and  several  of  ihe  supporters 
of  Government  have  represented  that  matters  cannot  con- 
tinue in  their  present  state,  and  that  the  resistance  to  pay- 


474  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

ment  of  tithe  on  the  one  hand  and  the  threats  of  rebellion 
on  the  other  render  it  of  paramount  necessity  to  settle  the 
question,  and  that  it  is  better  after  all  to  take  the  Bill  with- 
out the  appropriation  clause  than  to  let  it  be  again  lost. 
This  difference  of  opinion  has  of  course  particularly  embar- 
rassed Lord  John  Russell,  and  they  do  not  know  what  to  do. 
With  respect  to  Lord  John  himself  the  question  is,  Can  he 
continue  in  office  and  let  the  Bill  pass  without  the  clause  ?  If 
he  cannot,  are  his  colleagues  as  completely  committed  as  he 
is,  or  may  not  they  elect  some  other  leader  on  his  migration, 
and  take  the  Bill  in  that  state  ?  I  told  Tavistock  that  he  well 
knew  what  my  opinions  had  always  been  with  respect  to  the 
introduction  of  that  clause,  which  seemed  to  be  more  fully 
justified  by  the  event ;  that  I  did  not  think  any  difference 
could  be  made  between  John  and  his  colleagues,  and  they 
must  stand  or  fall  together.  "With  respect  to  their  taking  the 
Bill  without  the  clause,  they,  and  Lord  John  in  particular, 
must  make  up  their  minds,  if  they  do  so,  to  have  every  species 
of  abuse  poured  upon  them  from  their  Tory  enemies  and 
their  Radical  friends ;  but  they  were  in  a  scrape,  and  had,  in 
fact,  got  the  country  into  a  scrape  too,  and  their  duty  now 
was  to  take  that  course  which  on  the  whole  seemed  to  promise 
the  best  results,  whatever  it  might  personally  cost  them  and 
to  whatever  reproaches  they  might  render  themselves  liable. 
If  they  were  satisfied  that  no  other  Government  would  at 
present  be  formed,  and  that  the  Irish  Church  question  could 
be  settled  in  no  other  way,  they  ought  to  swallow  the  pill. 
He  said  he  thought  they  were  not  indisposed  to  face  the  ob- 
loquy, if  it  must  be  so,  and  that  all  depended  upon  the  conduct 
of  the  Lords,  and  upon  their  affording  the  Government  a  de- 
cent pretext  for  taking  the  Bill.  I  asked  how.  He  said  that 
what  he  thought  of  was  this — earnestly  conjuring  me  not  to 
commit  him  and  his  friends  by  saying  he  had  suggested  any 
such  thing  (which  satisfied  me  that  it  was  not  only  his  own 
idea,  but  that  of  others  also  belonging  to  the  Government) — 
that  last  year  the  Lords  had  thrown  out  the  Bill,  because  the 
appropriation  clause  being  a  money  clause,  they  could  not 
touch  it,  but  that  now  this  objection  was  removed  as  to  form, 
and  they  were  at  libert}'  to  cut  it  out  if  they  pleased,  and  re- 
turn the  Bill  without  it  to  the  Commons ;  that  if  the}7  would 
ut  the  same  time  pass  a  resolution  declaring  that  if  any  sur- 
plus was  reported  such  surplus  should  be  at  the  disposal  of 
Parliament,  without  expressing  any  opinion  as  to  the  way  in 


183(5.]  THE   MINISTRY   IN   DIFFICULTIES.  475 

which  Parliament  should  deal  with  it,  this,  he  thought,  would 
be  sufficient  to  enable  the  Whigs  salvo  honore  to  take  the 
Bill ;  neither  party  would  be  compromised  or  committed  to 
any  thing  at  variance  with  the  principles  they  had  already 
professed,  and  the  alteration  in  the  state  of  the  question  pro- 
duced by  the  discovery  of  that  legal  process  to  which  the 
clergy  had  had  recourse  would,  together  with  such  a  resolu- 
tion, be  a  sufficient  warrant  to  them  to  pass  the  Bill.  I  told 
him  that  I  would  not  commit  him,  and  I  would  endeavor  (if  I 
had  an  opportunity)  to  ascertain  if  there  was  any  chance  of 
the  Lords  taking  such  a  course,  to  which  I  could  see  no  ob- 
jection. 

Petworth,  July  24^. — Came  here  yesterday  from  Hilling- 
don,  the  day  before  from  London.  In  the  morning  (Friday) 
there  was  a  meeting  of  the  Ministerialists  at  the  Foreign 
Office;  called  by  Lord  John  Russell,  to  talk  to  them  about  the 
Church  Bill.  After  the  skirmish  in  the  House  of  Commons 
between  him  and  Charles  Buller,  a  deputation,  headed  by 
Hume,  waited  on  Melbourne,  to  remonstrate,  and  they  re- 
ported that  the  interview  was  on  his  part  very  civil  and  good- 
natured,  but  very  unsatisfactory.  Lord  John  Russell  there- 
fore called  them  together  and  harangued  them.  He  is  said 
to  have  spoken  very  well,  stating  that  Government  could 
not  and  would  not  give  way  with  respect  to  this  measure, 
and  reminding  Hume  that  in  a  former  speech  he  had  already 
assented  to  the  principle  of  the  Bill.  The  English  Radicals 
were,  however,  not  to  be  appeased,  spoke  strongly,  and  de- 
clared they  would  oppose  the  Bill  in  every  stage.  O'Connell 
rose,  and  said  that  he  would  support  Government,  that 
it  was  of  vital  consequence  to  Ireland  that  there  should  be 
no  appearance  of  disunion  in  the  party,  and  that  no  idea 
should  prevail  there  that  there  was  a  chance  of  its  being 
broken  up  ;  and  for  this  reason  Government  should  have  his 
support. 

I  met  them  all  coming  away,  and  fastened  on  Tom  Dun- 
combe,  who  told  me  what  had  passed,  and  how  angry  they 
(the  English  Radicals)  were.  I  asked  him  whether  their 
resentment  would  induce  them  to  desert  Government  on  the 
appropriation  clauses  and  stay  away,  because,  if  so,  they 
must  go  out  ;  and  he  said  that  it  would  not  push  them  to 
that  length.  It  may  be  presumed  that  O'Connell's  behavior 
at  this  meeting  will  have  bound  the  Government  still  more 


476  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

not  to  give  way  on  this  clause,  and  that  whatever  the  Lords 
may  do,  they  will  fight  the  battle. 

The  Lords,  in  the  mean  time,  have  gone  quietly  into  Com- 
mittee, and  the  second  reading  passed  off  with  tolerable 
harmony.  Melbourne  made  a  good  speech,  and  produced  a 
surplus,  but  which  the  Duke  of  Wellington  will  take  very 
good  care  to  reduce  again  to  nil.  This  is  very  easily  done 
on  one  side,  and  the  contrary  on  the  other  ;  redistribution 
can  accomplish  either  desideratum — surplus  or  no  surplus. 
However,  the  Government  seems  to  be  in  a  pretty  state 
between  their  moderate  and  their  violent  adherents,  and 
though  they  may  scramble  through  this  session,  and  hustle 
Parliament  to  an  end,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  they  will  ever 
pass  the  ordeal  of  another,  for  they  can  neither  continue  in 
their  present  course  nor  adopt  any  other  with  safety. 

I  met  old  Denison  (the  member  for  Surrey) — a  strong 
supporter  of  the  Government  and  an  old  Whig — coming  from 
the  meeting  on  Friday,  and  suggested  to  him  what  a  scrape 
his  friends  were  in.  He  owned  that  it  was  so,  but  said  that 
parties  were  so  balanced  that  Peel  could  not  go  on  if  he 
came  in.  I  said  Peel  could  not  go  on  if  the  King  turned 
out  the  Government  as  he  had  done  before,  or  if  Peel  was 
instrumental  in  compelling  them  to  resign  ;  but  that  if 
they  resigned  of  their  own  accord,  and  because  they  were 
themselves  conscious  that  they  could  not  go  on,  I  thought 
Peel  would  be  supported  by  a  majority  even  of  this  House  of 
Commons  ;  for,  after  all,  the  country  must  have  a  Govern- 
ment, and  if  Peel  took  it  because  it  was  vacant,  and  nobody 
else  could  be  found  to  occupy  it,  he  could  not  be  refused 
the  trial,  which  he  had  in  vain  asked  for  before.  He  owned 
this  was  true,  and  such  an  admission  from  such  a  man  was  a 
great  deal.  The  King  is  evidently  waiting  with  the  greatest 
impatience  for  the  moment  when  his' Ministers  must  resign. 
He  complained  bitterly  of  my  brother-in-law's  1  going  abroad, 
he  said  it  was  a  time  when  every  Conservative  ought  to  be 
at  his  post,  which  means  that  every  opponent  of  his  Ministers 
should  strive  with  ceaseless  zeal  to  drive  them  to  the  wall. 
He  is  a  true  King  of  the  Tories,  for  his  impatience  fully 
equals  theirs. 

August  7th. — After  the  meeting  at  the  Foreign  Office 
there  seems  to  have  been  an  end  of  all  notion  of  any  com- 
promise, or  any  giving  way  on  the  part  of  the  Government 
1  [Lord  Francis  Egerton.] 


1836.]          DISSENSION  BETWEEN   LORDS   AND   COMMONS.        477 

about  the  clauses  in  the  Tithe  Bill,  and  Lord  John  Russell 
held  very  strong1  language.  The  debate  presented  nothing 
remarkable.  Shiel  came  over  from  Ireland  on  purpose  to 
speak,  not  being  able  to  vote,  as  he  had  paired.  Great 
exertions  were  made  on  both  sides,  and  the  Tories  dragged 
up  Sir  Watkin  Williams  Wynn  from  Wales,  very  infirm  ; 
and  had  a  blind  man  in  the  House,  led  about  by  Ross.  The 
majority  of  twenty-nine  ought  to  have  been  twenty-six,  just 
the  same  as  the  last  division.  Sir  Charles  Cockerell  (Whig) 
was  shut  out,  while  on  the  other  side  Lord  Arthur  Hill's1 
vote  was  lost  by  his  mother's  death,  which  made  him  a  Peer, 
and  the  Lennoxes  and  Poyntz  staid  away.  The  whole  thing 
went  off  tamely  enough;  everybody  in  Parliament  knew  what 
was  to  happen,  and  out-of-doors  people  don't  care.  While 
the  revenue  presents  an  excess  of  two  millions,  and  every 
thing  flourishes,  political  excitement  is  impossible.  The  Lords 
continue  to  throw  out  Bills,  and  many  complaints  are  made 
of  their  evident  determination  to  reject  as  many  of  the 
Commons'  measures  as  they  can.  Some  of  them  have  been 
opposed,  particularly  the  Stafford  Disfranchisement  Bill,  by 
the  Ministers  themselves.  The  Lords,  however,  no  doubt 
evince  a  very  imprudent  disposition  to  exercise  their  power 
of  rejection  without  grave  and  sufficient  cause,  and  needlessly 
to  expose  themselves  to  the  charge  of  wanton  and  intem- 
perate opposition  to  the  measures  of  the  Commons.  It  is 
the  height  of  folly  to  make  the  line  between  the  two  Houses 
as  broad  as  possible,  and  to  publish  to  the  world  on  every 
occasion  that  the  one  House  is  Whig  and  the  other  Tory; 
not  but  what  (in  the  present  rage  for  legislation,  and  the 
careless  and  hurried  way  in  which  measures  are  bustled 
through  the  House  of  Commons)  the  revision  and  watchful 
superintendence  of  tho  House  of  Lords  are  more  than  ever 
necessary. 

There  was  a  report  of  General  Evans's  death  the  other  day, 
which  was  believed  for  some  time,  and  long  enough  to  show 
that  there  would  have  been  a  contest  for  Westminster  if  it 
had  been  true. 

The  accounts  from  Spain  are  deplorable,  and  it  is  curious 
enough  that  while  Palmcrston  was  proclaiming  in  the  House 
of  Commons  his  conviction  of  the  ultimate  success  of  the 
Christine  cause  he  must  have  had  letters  from  Villiers  in 

1  [Lord  Arthur  Hill  became  Baron  Sandys  on  the  death  of  his  m  Jther,  tho 
Marchioness  of  Downshire,  who  \vas  Barone'sB  Sandys  in  her  ofn  right.] 


478  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

his  pocket  telling  .him  that  it  was  almost  hopeless.  I  saw 
one  from  him  a  few  days  ago,  written  in  the  greatest  despond- 
ency. He  said  that  he  had  been  stopped  on  his  road  to  St. 
Ildefonso  by  intelligence  that  the  Carlists  were  approaching 
the  place,  and  that  the  Queen  had  taken  flight.  He  found 
all  the  relays  of  nmles  ready  for  her  Majesty,  and  he  re- 
turned to  Madrid.  It  turned  out  to  be  a  false  alarm,  and  the 
Queen  staid  where  she  was  ;  but  he  said  that  he  could  only 
compare  the  progress  of  the  Carlists  to  water  spreading  over 
table-land.  It  will  be  a  severe  blow  to  Palmerston  if  this 
cause  is  overthrown,  though  perhaps  no  fault  of  his  policy. 
Had  France  acted  fairly,  the  result  of  the  Quadruple  Alliance 
would  have  answered  the  expectation  of  its  authors,  but 
France,  instead  of  cooperating  according  to  the  spirit  of  that 
treaty,  has  thrown  every  impediment  in  its  way.  It  is  sur- 
prising to  hear  how  Palmerston  is  spoken  of  by  those  who 
know  him  well  officially — the  Granvilles,  for  example.  Lady 
Granville,  a  woman  expert  in  judging,  thinks  his  capacity 
first  rate  ;  that  it  approaches  to  greatness  from  his  enlarged 
views,  disdain  of  trivialities,  resolution,  decision,  confidence, 
and  above  all  his  contempt  of  clamor  and  abuse.  She  told  me 
that  Madame  de  Flahault  had  a  letter  written  by  Talleyrand 
soon  after  his  first  arrival  in  England,  in  which  he  talked  with 
great  contempt  of  the  Ministers  generally,  Lord  Grey  in- 
cluded, and  said  there  was  but  one  statesman  among  them, 
and  that  was  Palmerston.  His  ordinary  conversation  exhibits 
no  such  superiority;  but  when  he  takes  his  pen  in  his  hand 
his  intellect  seems  to  have  full  play,  and  probably  when 
engaged  exclusively  in  business. 

August  13tfA. — On  Monday  last  I  was  riding  early  in  the 
Park  and  met  Lord  Howick.  We  rode  together  for  some  time. 
He  said  that  "he  supposed  they  should  be  out  after  this 
session,  and  they  ought  to  be  out,  as  they  could  carry  none 
of  their  measures,  and  the  Lords  rejected  Bill  after  Bill  sent 
up  from  the  other  House  ;  that  since  the  Tories  chose  to  go 
on  in  this  way,  they  must  make  the  experiment  and  carry 
on  the  Government  if  they  could,  but  they  must  look  for 
every  opposition  from  his  friends  and  his  party.  It  was 
quite  impossible  things  could  go  on  upon  their  present 
footing ;  the  country  would  not  stand  it,  and  the  Lords  must 
look  to  those  changes  which  their  own  conduct  rendered  in- 
dispensable." I  said  to  Howick  that  the  appropriation  clause 
made  the  great  difficulty  of  the  Whigs ;  that  I  believed  they 


1836.]  PARLIAMENT   PROROGUED.  479 

were,  on  the  whole,  a  very  Conservative  Government,  but  why 
struggle  for  this  absurdity,  and  why  not  bring  forward  a 
measure  at  once  of  real  relief  and  pay  the  Catholic  clergy  ? 
He  said  they  could  not  do  it;  their  own  friends  would  not 
support  them  ;  that  the  Tories  might  have  done  it,  but  that 
the  Whigs  could  not.  "  So,"  I  replied,  "  both  parties  are  in 
such  a  position  that  no  Conservative  measures  can  be  carried 
but  by  the  Whigs,  and  no  Liberal  ones  but  by  the  Tories." 

Since  this  there  has  been  a  free  conference,  and  the  Lords 
have  been  bowling  down  Bills  like  ninepins.  This  certainly 
cannot  go  on ;  either  the  Tories  must  come  into  power  again, 
or  the  Whigs  must  do  something  to  control  the  House  of 
Lords,  or  the  Lords  must  lower  their  tone  and  adopt  more 
moderate  counsels.  The  latter  would  be  the  best,  as  it  is  the 
least  probable,  of  the  three  alternatives. 

His  Majesty  was  pleased  to  be  very  facetious  at  the 
Council  the  other  day,  though  not  very  refined.  A  new  seal 
for  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  was  approved,  and  the  impression 
represented  a  Kaffre,  with  some  ornaments  on  his  head  which 
resembled  horns.  The  King  asked  Lord  Glenelg  what  these 
horns  meant,  but  Glenelg  referred  his  Majesty  to  Poulett 
Thomson,  to  whom  he  said :  "  Well,  Mr.  Thomson,  what  do 
you  say  to  this  ?  I  know  you  are  a  man  of  gallantry,  but  if 
you  choose  to  be  represented  with  a  pair  of  horns  I  am  sure  I 
have  no  objection  ; "  at  which  sally  their  lordships  laughed,  as 
in  duty  bound. 

August  %lst. — Yesterday  the  King  prorogued  Parliament 
Avith  a  very  moderate  inoffensive  Speech.  The  Tories  had 
spread  a  report  that  the  Ministers  wanted  to  thrust  into  the 
Speech  some  allusions  to  the  conduct  of  the  House  of  Lords, 
but  no  such  thing  was  ever  contemplated. 

The  session  was  wound  up  by  an  oration  of  Lyndhurst's  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  introduced  with  a  considerable  note  of 
preparation.  It  was  announced  a  day  or  two  before  that  he 
\vas  going  down  to  deliver  a  vindication  of  the  majority  of  the 
Lords  and  of  himself  for  their  conduct  during  the  session,  and 
the  expectation  which  was  raised  was  not  disappointed.  It 
seems  to  have  been  a  great  display,  and  sufficiently  well 
answered  by  Melbourne.  As  his  opponents  universally  admit 
that  Lyndhurst's  speech  was  of  consummate  ability,  while  his 
friends  confess  that  it  was  not  discreet  and  well  judged,  we 
may  safely  conclude  that  it  deserves  both  the  praise  and  the 
blamo;  and  as  the  Duke  of  Wellington  rose  aftenvjml  nnd 


480  REIGN    OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

made  a  speech  of  remarkable  moderation,  it  would  certainly 
appear  as  if  he  thought  it  necessary  to  temper  the  violence  of 
Lyndhurst  by  a  more  conciliatory  tone.  When  I  say  his 
friends  have  expressed  the  opinions  above  seated,  I  should 
say  that  I  have  conversed  with  only  two — Lords  Bathurst  and 
Ripon — and  they  both  expressed  themselves  to  this  effect. 
Lord  Holland,  who  endeavored  to  answer  it,  said  he  thought 
Lyndhurst's  one  of  the  best  speeches  he  had  ever  heard  in 
Parliament. 

If  he  had  confined  himself  to  a  temperate  and  dign.ified 
vindication  of  the  proceedings  of  the  House  of  Lords  (that 
is,  of  his  own),  and  had  abstained  from  any  attack  on  the 
Government,  and  especially  from  any  language  reflecting  on 
the  Commons,  perhaps  it  would  have  been  a  wise  measure, 
but  it  cannot  be  wise  to  widen  the  differences  which 
already  exist  between  the  two  Houses,  and  to  render  all  the 
animosities  of  public  men  more  bitter  and  irreconcilable 
than  they  were  before.  The  Tories  are  convinced  that 
they  are  becoming  more  and  more  popular,  and  that  the 
country  approves  of  the  daring  behavior  of  the  Lords. 
The  Whigs  insist  that  the  apathy  of  the  country  (which 
they  mistake  for  approbation)  is  nothing  but  the  imper- 
turbability resulting  from  prosperity  and  full  employment, 
but  that  if  adverse  circumstances  arise  a  storm  will  burst 
on  the  Lords,  and  they  will  see  how  miserably  deceived 
they  are.  I  think  the  Lords  have  gone  too  far.  and  though 
a  vast  deal  of  crude  legislation  comes  up  from  the  Commons, 
requiring  much  supervision,  and  often  great  alteration,  they 
have  shown  an  animus  and  adopted  a  practice  quite  foreign  to 
the  usual  habits  of  the  House  of  Lords,  and  which  is  in  itself 
an  important  innovation.  The  truth  is,  it  is  not  (as  has  been 
represented)  a  contest  between  the  two  Houses,  but  between 
the  two  great  parties  very  nearly  balanced,  of  which  the 
stronghold  of  one  is  in  the  Lords,  and  that  of  the  other  in  the 
Commons.  It  can  scarcely  cross  the  minds  of  either  party,  or 
of  any  individual  of  either,  that  the  substantive  power  of  Gov- 
ernment can  or  ought  to  be  transferred  from  the  House  of 
Commons  to  the  House  of  Lords,  and  Lyndhurst  and  the 
Tories  would  not  venture  to  make  the  havoc  which  they  do  in 
the  Government  Bills  if  they  were  not  persuaded  that  if  ever 
a  crisis  is  produced  bv  the  collision  their  party  will  succeed  in 
obtaining  the  sanction  of  the  country  and  an  ascendency  in  the 
other  House.  Tf  they  have  estimated  correctly  their  own 


1836.]      MARRIAGE   OF  LADY  .AUGUSTA   FITZCLARENCE.        481 

strength  and  the  real  disposition  of  the  country,  their  Parlia- 
mentary tactics  have  been,  skillful,  but  the  game  which  they 
play  is  a  very  desperate  one,  for  if  it  fails  the  House  of  Lords 
can  hardly  avoid  suffering  very  materially  from  the  conflict. 
However,  much  is  to  be  said  on  the  subject  when  considered 
iu  all  its  bearings. 

The  King  at  his  last  levee  received  Dr.  Allen  to  do  homage 
for  the  see  of  Ely,  when  he  said  to  him,  "  My  Lord,  I  do  not 
mean  to  interfere  in  any  way  with  your  vote  in  Parliament 
except  on  one  subject,  the  Jeics,  and  I  trust  I  may  depend  on 
your  always  voting  against  them." 

August  30th. — At  Hillingdon  from  Saturday  to  Monday. 
There  were  great  festivities  at  Windsor  during  the  Egham 
race  week,  when  the  King's  daughter  Lady  Augusta  was  mar- 
ried at  the  Castle.1  It  was  remarked  that  on  the  King's  birth- 
day not  one  of  the  Ministers  was  invited  to  the  Castle,  and 
none  except  the  Household  in  any  way  connected  with  the 
Government.  At  the  Queen's  birthday  a  short  time  before 
not  one  individual  of  that  party  was  present.  Nothing  can 
be  more  undisguised  than  the  King's  aversion  to  his  Minis- 
ters, and  he  seems  resolved  to  intimate  that  his  compulsory 
reception  of  them  shall  not  extend  to  his  society,  and  that 
though  he  can't  help  seeing  them  at  St.  James's,  the  gates  of 
Windsor  are  shut  against  them.  All  his  habitual  guests  are 
of  the  Tory  party,  and  generally  those  who  have  distinguished 
themselves  by  their  violence  or  are  noted  for  their  extreme  opin- 
ions—  Winchelsea  and  Wharncliffe,  for  example,  of  the  former, 
and  the  Duke  of  Dorset  of  the  latter  sort.  At  the  dinner  on 
his  birthday  the  King  gave  the  Princess  Victoria's  health 
rather  well.  Having  given  the  Princess  Augusta's  he  said: 
"  And  now,  having  given  the  health  of  the  oldest,  I  will  give 
that  of  the  youngest  member  of  the  Royal  Family.  I  know 
the  interest  which  the  public  feel  about  her,  and  although  I 
have  not  seen  so  much  of  her  as  I  could  have  wished,  I  take 
no  less  interest  in  her,  and  the  more  I  do  see  of  her,  both  in 
public  and  in  private,  the  greater  pleasure  it  will  give  me." 
The  whole  thing  was  so  civil  and  gracious  that  it  could  hardly 
be  taken  ill,  but  the  young  Princess  sat  opposite,  and  hung 
her  head  with  not  unnatural  modesty  at  being  thus  talked  of 
in  so  large  a  company. 

'  [Lady  Augusta  Fitzclarcncc,  fourth  daughter  of  King  "William  IV.  by  Mrs. 
Jordan,  married  first,  on  the  5th  of  July,  1827,  to  the  Hon.  John  Kennedy 
Erskine,  and  secondly,  on  the  26th  of  August,  1836,  to  Lord  John  Fredcricjj 
Gordon.  She  died  in  1865.] 

43 


482  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

While  London  is  entirely  deserted,  and  every  thing  is 
quiet  and  prosperous  here,  there  is  a  storm  raging  in  Spain 
which  has  already  had  an  effect  in  France,  by  producing  the 
dissolution  of  Thiers's  Ministry,1  and  may  very  likely  end  by 
creating  disturbances  in  that  country  and  embroiling  Europe. 
The  complication  of  French  politics,  the  character  and  designs 
of  the  King,  his  relations  with  the  great  Powers  of  Europe, 
and  the  personal  danger  to  which  he  is  exposed  from  the 
effects  of  a  demoralized  mass  of  floating  hostility  and  disaffec- 
tion, rendered  doubly  perilous  from  the  mixture  of  unnatural 
excitement  and  contempt  of  life  which  largely  enter  into  it, 
present  a  very  curious  and  very  interesting  subject  of  political 
observation  and  speculation  for  those  who  have  the  means  of 
investigating  it  closely. 

September  ^th. — Mrs.  Villiers  sent  me  to-day  the  copies 
of  two  dispatches  of  George  Villiers's  to  Palmerston,  con- 
taining a  narrative  of  the  events  which  took  place  at  St. 
Ildefonso  on  the  12th,  13th,  and  14th  of  last  month ;  these 
he  sent  to  her,  because  he  had  not  time  to  write  the  details 
all  over  again.  Nothing  can  be  more  curious,  nothing  more 
interesting,  nothing  more  admirably  described,  all  the  de- 
tails given  with  great  simplicity,  extreme  clearness,  and 
inimitable  liveliness  of  narration.  It  reminds  one  of  the 
scenes  enacted  during  the  French  Revolution ;  but  as  these 
dispatches  will  probably  be  published,  I  shall  not  be  at  the 
pains  to  give  an  analysis  of  them  here.  It  is  remarkable 
how  courageously  and  prudently  the  Queen  seems  to  have 
behaved.  What  energies  a  difficult  crisis  called  forth ! 
How  her  spirit  and  self-possession  bore  up  in  the  midst  of 
danger  and  insult,  and  how  she  contrived  to  preserve  her 
dignity  even  while  compelled  to  make  the  most  humiliating 
concessions !  No  romance  was  ever  more  interesting  than 

1  [M.  Thiers  came  into  power  for  the  first  time  as  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs 
and  head  of  the  Government  on  the  22d  of  February,  1836.  He  had  boasted 
that  he  should  be  able  to  engage  the  King  in  a  more  active  intervention  in 
Spain  in  favor  of  the  young  Queen — "Nous  entrainerons  le  Eoi"  was  his  ex- 
pression— but  in  this  he  was  deceived,  and  his  Administration  came  to  a  speedy 
termination.  Lord  Palmerston  proposed  on  the  14th  of  March  that  some  of 
the  ports  on  the  coast  of  Biscay  should  be  occupied  by  British  seamen  and 
marines,  and  that  Passages,  Fontarabia,  and  the  valley  of  Bartan,  should  be  oc- 
cupied by  the  French.  This  scheme  was  strenuously  opposed  by  the  King, 
though  M.  Thiers  was  willing  to  assent  to  it.  The  ^Revolution  of  La  Crania  in 
August  only  increased  the  repugnance  of  Louis  Philippe  to  interfere  active]  v  in 
Spain,  and  early  in  September  the  Thiers  Cabinet  was  dissolved.  Mr.  Vil- 
liers's narrative  of  the  revolution  of  La  Granja  is  alluded  to  in  the  passage  next 
following  ] 


1836.]  ADMIRALS  SARTORIUS  AND   NAPIER.  483 

this  narrative.  George  Villiers's  correspondence  will  some 
day  or  other  make  one  of  the  most  valuable  and  entertaining 
publications  that  ever  appeared,  though  I  shall  not  live  to  see 
it.  He  writes  incomparably  well,  with  a  mixture  of  vivacity 
and  energy  peculiarly  his  own. 

September  2 1st. — I  have  recorded  nothing  about  the  revo- 
lutions at  Madrid  and  Lisbon,  because  I  know  nothing  be- 
sides what  has  appeared  in  all  the  newspapers,  and  it  would 
be  very  useless  to  copy  facts  from  their  columns.  As  to  pri- 
vate matters,  and  the  exploits  or  interests  of  individuals,  I 
only  note  them  as  the  fancy  takes  me,  and  the  fancy  has  not 
taken  me  of  late.  I  cannot  keep  a  journal — that  is,  a  day-by- 
day  memorial — and  I  have  an  invincible  repugnance  to  mak- 
ing my  MS.  books  the  receptacles  of  scandal,  and  handing 
down  to  posterity  (if  ever  posterity  should  have  an  opportu- 
nity of  seeing  and  would  take  the  trouble  to  read  these  pages) 
the  private  faults  and  follies  of  my  friends,  acquaintance,  and 
associates. 

To-day  we  had  a  Council,  the  first  since  Parliament  was 
prorogued,  when  his  most  gracious  Majesty  behaved  most 
ungraciously  to  his  confidential  servants,  whom  he  certainly 
does  not  delight  to  honor.  The  last  article  on  the  list  was 
a  petition  of  Admiral  Sartorius  praying  to  be  restored  to  his 
rank,  and  when  this  was  read  the  King,  after  repeating  -the 
usual  form  of  words,  added :  "  And  must  be  granted.  As 
Captain  Napier  was  restored,  so  must  this  gentleman  be, 
for  there  was  this  difference  between  their  cases:  Admiral 
Napier  kneAV  he  was  doing  wrong,  which  Admiral  Sartorius 
was  not  aware  of."  Lord  Minto  said,  "  I  believe,  sir,  there 
was  not  so  much  difference  between  the  two  cases  as  your 
Majesty  imagines,  for  Admiral  Sartorius — "  Then  followed 
something  which  I  did  not  catch,  but  the  King  did,  for  he 
said,  with  considerable  asperity  :  "  Unless  your  Lordship  is 
quite  sure  of  that,  I  must  beg  leave  to  say  that  I  differ  from 
you  and  do  not  believe  it  to  be  so,  but  since  you  have  ex- 
pressed your  belief  that  it  is  so,  I  desire  you  will  furnish  me 
with  proofs  of  it  immediately.  The  next  time  I  see  you  you 
will  be  prepared  with  the  proofs  of  what  you  say,  for  unless 
I  see  them  I  shall  not  believe  one  word  of  it."  Minto  made 
no  reply  to  this  extraordinary  sortie,  and  the  rest  looked  at 
each  other  in  silence. 

This,  however,  was  nothing  compared  with  what  took 
place  at  Windsor  with  the  Duchess  of  Kent,  of  which  I  heard 


J84  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

something  a,  long  time  ago  (August  30th),  but  never  the  par- 
ticulars till  last  night.     It  is  very  remarkable  that  the  thing 
has  not  been  more   talked   about.      The   King   invited   the 
Duchess  of  Kent  to  go  to  Windsor  on  the  12th  of  August  to 
celebrate  the  Queen's  birthday  (13th),  and  to  stay  there  over 
his  own  birthday,  which  was  to  be  kept  (privately)  on  the 
21st  (the  real  day,  but  falling  on  Sunday),  and  publicly  the 
day  following.     She  sent  word  that  she  wanted  to  keep  her 
own  birthday  at  Claremont  on  the  15th  (or  whatever  the  day 
is),  took  no  notice  of  the  Queen's  birthday,  but  said  she  would 
go  to  Windsor  on  the  20th.     This  put  the  King  in  a  fury ; 
he  made,  however,  no  reply,  and  on  the  20th  he  was  in  town 
to  prorogue  Parliament,  having  desired  that  they  would  not 
wait  dinner  for  him   at  Windsor.     After  the  prorogation  he 
went  to  Kensington  Palace  to  look  about  it ;  when  he  got 
there  he  found  that  the  Duchess  of  Kent  had  appropriated 
to  her  own  use  a  suite  of  apartments,  seventeen  in  number, 
for  which  she  had  applied  last  year,  and  which  he  had  refused 
to  let  her  have.      This  increased  his  ill-humor,   already  ex- 
cessive.     When  he  arrived  at  Windsor   and  went  into  the 
drawing-room  (at  about  ten  o'clock  at  night),  where  the  whole 
party  was  assembled,  he  went  up  to   the   Princess  Victoria, 
took  hold  of  both  her  hands,  and  expressed  his  pleasure  at 
seeing  her  there  and   his  regret  at  not  seeing  her  oftener. 
He  then  turned  to  the  Duchess  and  made  her  a  low  bow ; 
almost  immediately  after  which  he  said  that  "  a  most  unwar- 
rantable liberty  had  been  taken  with  one  of  his  palaces ;  that 
he  had  just  come  from  Kensington,  where  he  found  apart- 
ments had  been  taken  possession  of,  not  only  without  his  con- 
sent, but  contrary  to  his  commands,  and  that  he  neither  under- 
stood  nor  would  endure  conduct  so  disrespectful  to  him." 
This  was  said  loudly,  publicly,  and  in  a  tone  of  serious  dis- 
pleasure.    It  was,  however,  only  the  muttering  of  the  storm 
which  was  to  break  the  next  day.     Adolphus   Fitzclarence 
went  into  his  room  on  Sunday  morning,  and  found  him  in  a 
state  of  great  excitement.     It  was  his  birthday,  and,  though 
the  celebration  was  what  was  called  private,  th ere  were  a  hun- 
dred people  at  dinner,  either  belonging  to  the  Court  or  from 
the  neighborhood.     The  Duchess  of  Kent  sat  on  one  side  of 
the  King,  and  one  of  his   sisters  on  the  other,  the  Princess 
Victoria  opposite.     Adolphus  Fitzclarence  sat  two  or  three 
from  the  Duchess,  and  heard  every  word  of  what  passed. 
After  dinner,  by  the  Queen's  desire,  "  His  Majesty's  health, 


1836.]  THE  KING  AND  THE  DUCHESS  OF  KENT.  485 

and  long  life  to  him,"  was  given,  and,  as  soon  as  it  was  drunk, 
he  made  a  very  long  speech,  in  the  course  of  which  he  poured 
forth  the  following  extraordinary  and  foudroyante  tirade:  "I 
trust  in  God  that  my  life  may  be  spared  for  nine  months 
longer,  after  which  period,  in  the  event  of  my  death,  no  re- 
gency would  take  place.  I  should  then  have  the  satisfaction 
of  leaving  the  royal  authority  to  the  personal  exercise  of  that 
young  lady  (pointing  to  the  Princess)  the  heiress  presumptive 
of  the  Crown,  and  not  in  the  hands  of  a  person  now  near  me, 
who  is  surrounded  by  evil  advisers,  and  who  is  herself  incom- 
petent to  act  with  propriety  in  the  station  in  which  she  would 
be  placed.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saving  that  I  have  been  insult- 
ed— grossly  and  continually  insulted — by  that  person,  but  I  am 
determined  to  endure  no  longer  a  course  of  behavior  so  disre- 
spectful to  me.  Among  many  other  things  I  have  particu- 
larly to  complain  of  the  manner  in  which  that  young  lady  has 
been  kept  away  from  my  Court ;  she  has  been  repeatedly  kept 
from  my  drawing-rooms,  at  which  she  ought  always  to  have 
been  present,  but  I  am  fully  resolved  that  this  shall  not  hap- 
pen again.  I  would  have  her  know  that  I  am  King,  and  I  am 
determined  to  make  my  authority  respected,  and  for  the  fu- 
ture I  shall  insist  and  command  that  the  Princess  do  upon  all 
occasions  appear  at  my  Court,  as  it  is  her  duty  to  do."  He 
terminated  his  speech  by  an  allusion  to  the  Princess  and  her 
future  reign  in  a  tone  of  paternal  interest  and  affection,  which 
was  excellent  in  its  way.  , 

This  awful  philippic  (with  a  great  deal  more  which  I  for- 
get) was  uttered  with  a  loud  voice  and  excited  manner.  The 
Queen  looked  in  deep  distress,  the  Princess  burst  into  tears, 
and  the  whole  company  were  aghast.  The  Duchess  of  Kent 
said  not  a  word.  Immediately  after  they  rose  and  retired, 
and  a  terrible  scene  ensued ;  the  Duchess  announced  her  im- 
mediate departure,  and  ordered  her  carriage ;  but  a  sort  of 
reconciliation  was  patched  up,  and  she  wras  prevailed  upon  to 
stay  till  the  next  day.  The  following  morning,  when  the 
King  saw  Adolphus,  he  asked  him  what  people  said  to  his 
speech.  He  replied  that  they  thought  the  Duchess  of  Kent 
merited  his  rebuke,  but  that  it  ought  not  to  have  been  given 
there  ;  that  he  ought  to  have  sent  for  her  into  his  closet, 
and  have  said  all  that  he  felt  and  thought  there,  but  not  at 
table  before  a  hundred  people.  He  replied  that  he  did  not 
care  where  he  said  it  or  before  whom  ;  that  "  by  God  he 


4:86  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

had  been  insulted  by  her  in  a  measure  that  was  past  all 
endurance,  and  he  would  not  stand  it  any  longer." 

Nothing  can  be  more  unaccountable  than  the  Duchess  of 
Kent's  behavior  to  the  King,  nothing  more  reprehensible ; 
but  his  behavior  to  her  has  always  been  as  injudicious  and 
undignified  as  possible,  and  this  last  sortie  was  monstrous. 
It  was  his  duty  and  his  right  to  send  for  her,  and  signify  to 
her  both  his  displeasure  at  the  past  and  his  commands 
for  the  future ;  but  such  a  gross  and  public  insult  offered  to 
her  at  his  own  table,  sitting  by  his  side  and  in  the  presence 
of  her  daughter,  admits  of  no  excuse.  It  was  an  unparalleled 
outrage  from  a  man  to  a  woman,  from  a  host  to  his  guest, 
and  to  the  last  degree  unbecoming  the  station  they  both 
of  them  fill.  He  has  never  had  the  firmness  and  decision 
of  character  a  due  display  of  which  would  have  obviated 
the  necessity  of  such  bickerings,  and  his  passion  leads  him 
to  these  indecent  exhibitions,  which  have  not  the  effect  of 
correcting,  and  cannot  fail  to  have  that  of  exasperating 
her,  and  rendering  their  mutual  relations  more  hopelessly 
disagreeable. 

November  ^th. — An  interval  of  above  six  weeks.  I  went 
to  Newmarket  on  the  3d  of  October,  returned  to  town  for 
a  Council  on  Wednesday  in  the  first  October  week ;  after  the 
first  October  meeting  I  went  to  Buckenham,  after  the  second 
to  Euston,  and  after  the  third  came  to  town.  At  Buckenham 
I  met  Adolphus  Fitzclarence,  who  told  me  over  again  the 
particulars  of  the  scene  with  the  Duchess  of  Kent,  which  did 
not  differ  materially  from  what  I  had  put  down.  He  added 
one  item,  that  the  day  following  the  Queen  was  not  ready  for 
dinner,  and  when  dinner  was  announced  and  he  was  waiting 
he  asked,  "  Where's  the  Queen  ?  "  They  told  him  she  was 
waiting  f<5r  the  Duchess  of  Kent,  when  he  said,  loud  enough 
for  everybody  to  hear,  "  That  woman  is  a  nuisance."  He 
was  very  angry  at  King  Leopold's  coming  here,  received  him 
very  coldly  at  Windsor,  had  no  conversation  with  him  on 
business,  and  on  one  occasion  exhibited  a  rudeness  even  to 
brutality.  It  seems  he  hates  water-drinkers  ;  God  knows  why. 
One  day  at  dinner  Leopold  called  for  water,  when  the  King 
asked,  "  What's  that  you  are  drinking,  sir  ?  "  "  Water,  sir." 
"God  damn  it!"  rejoined  the  other  King,  "Why  don't  you 
drink  wine  ?  I  never  allow  anybody  to  drink  water  at  my 
table."  Leopold  only  dined  there,  and  went  away  in  the 
evening.  All  this  is  very  miserable  and  disgraceful. 


1836.]  PRINCE   ESTERHAZY'S  CONVERSATION.  487 

Of  politics  during  this  period  I  have  heard  little  or 
nothing,  except  that  while  the  Conservratives  are  feasting  and 
spouting  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  rallying  their  forces, 
there  is  a  split  among  their  opponents,  an  event  which  was 
inevitable,  considering  the  different  shades  of  opinion  pre- 
vailing among  them,  though  they  hope  to  reconcile  all  their 
differences  by  the  time  Parliament  meets,  which  they  will 
probably  do,  in  order  to  baffle  their  common  enemy.  It  is,  • 
however,  a  good  thing  that  these  differences  should  arise 
among  them.  I  wish  I  could  see  a  party  formed  upon  really 
Conservative  principles,  determined  to  maintain  the  Constitu- 
tion and  steer  clear  of  Tory  nonsense  and  bigotry;  but  this  I 
doubt  to  be  practicable. 

November  8th. — I  dined  on  Sunday  with  Cunningham,  and 
met  Prince  Esterhazy,  with  whom  I  had  a  long  conversation. 
He  talked  a  great  deal  about  the  state  of  Europe,  of  the 
bickerings  between  Palmerston  and  Louis  Philippe  on  the 
Spanish  question,  between  England  and  Russia  in  the  East, 
and  of  the  position  of  Austria  in  the  midst  of  it  all ;  that  he 
had  conversed  often  and  at  great  length  with  the  Emperor 
of  Russia  at  Prague  and  with  Louis  Philippe  at  Paris,  both 
having  talked  in  the  most  open  manner,  and  that  he  was 
endeavoring  (he  thought  successfully)  to  bring  Palmerston 
to  an  amicable  tone  and  feeling,  and  to  effect  some  sort  of 
compromise  with  respect  to  the  debated  points.  Both  sov- 
ereigns have  the  same  desire  to  avoid  war,  and  Louis  Philippe 
told  him  that  his  object  was  "  de  rendre  la  guerre  impossible," 
that  no  Power  could  be  so  much  interested  as  Austria  was  in 
restraining  the  power  and  ambition  of  Russia  within  reason- 
able bounds,  and  that  the  Emperor  had  held  the  most  moder- 
ate language,  as  he  believed,  with  sincerity ;  that  our  preju- 
dices against  Russia  were  unreasonably  violent,  and  they  arose 
in  some  degree  from  mortification  at  our  own  misconduct  in 
letting  opportunities  slip  out  of  our  hands,  and  throwing  ad- 
vantages and  influence  into  those  of  Russia,  which  we  were 
now  angry  that  she  availed  herself  of;  but  that  if  we  con- 
tinued to  act  frankly  and  firmly  in  conjunction  with  Austria 
and  France  (France  and  Austria  being  perfectly  agreed)  we 
chould  have  nothing  to  fear  from  Russia.  They  (the  northern 
Powers)  were  content  that  we  should  exercise  an  especial  in- 
fluence in  the  Peninsula  ;  the}'  were  aware  that  these  ques- 
tions were  the  peculiar  concern  and  interest  of  France  and 
England,  and  they  did  not  want  to  interfere.  But  for  the  es- 


488  REIGN  CF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

cape  of  Don  Carlos,  which  altered  the  aspect   of  affairs    in 
Spain,  and  some  trifling  points  of  etiquette  which  might  easily 
have  been  adjusted,  the  Spanish    question  would  have  been 
settled  among  the  Powers  long  ago,  and  the  Queen  recognized 
by  them  all.     He  said  that  for  a  long  time  past  the  affairs  of 
Europe  had  been  extensively  influenced  by  personal   feelings 
and  individual  interests   and  passions,  greatly  so  on  Palmer- 
ston's  own  part  and  very  much  during  the  embassy  of  the 
Lievens,  Madame  de  Lieven  having  been  so  much  influenced 
by  partisanship  and  by  her  fluctuating  friendships   and  con- 
nections.    The  Emperor  told  Esterhazy  that  it  was  impossible 
for  him  to  leave  Lieven  there,  that  he  was  not  represented  by 
him  as  he  ought  to  be,  that  they  in  some  respects  fell  short 
of,  and  in  others  went  beyond,  the  line  which  their  duty  and 
his  interests  demanded.     He  said  that  the  Emperor  Nicholas 
was  a  very  remarkable  man — absolute  master,  his  own  Minis- 
ter, and  under  no  other  influence  whatever — that  his  percep- 
tions were  just  and  his  ideas  remarkably  clear,  although  his 
views  were  not  very  extensive,  and  the  circle  within  which 
these  ideas  ranged  was  limited,  Nesselrode  not  having  a  par- 
ticle of  influence  ;  his  Ministers  and  Embassadors  were  clerks  ; 
and  while  his  ease  and  affability  to  foreigners  (to  him — Ester- 
hazy — in  particular)  were  excessively  striking,  he  treated  his 
Russians  with  a  loftiness  that  could  not  be  conceived,  and  one 
and  all  trembled  in  his  presence  with  the  crouching  humility 
of  slaves.     When  he  was  at  Prague  he  on  a  sudden  set  off 
and  traveled  with  amazing  rapidity  to  Vienna,  without  giving 
any  notice  to  anybody.     His  object  was  to  visit  the  Dowager 
Empress  and  the  tomb  of  the  late  Emperor.     He  alighted  at 
Tatischef's  (his  Embassador's),  where,  as  soon  as  his   arrival 
was  known,  the   Russian   ladies  who  were   at  Vienna   full- 
dressed  themselves  and  hurried  off  to  pay  their  devoirs.  They 
were  met,  in  all  their  diamonds  and  feathers,  on  the  staircase 
by  Benkendorf,  who  said,  "  Allez-vous-en   bien    vite;  1'Em- 
pereur  ne  veut  pas  voir  une  seule  de  vous,"  and  they  were 
obliged  to  bustle  back  with  as  much  alacrity  as  they  had  come. 
Though  the  best  understanding  prevailed  between  the  French 
and  Austrian  Governments,  and  the  latter  is  cordially  allied 
with  Louis  Philippe,  there  is  some  sourness  and   disappoint- 
ment at  the  failure  of  the  project  of  marriage  with  which  the 
Duke  of  Orleans  went  to  Vienna.     Esterhazy  said  that  it  had 
failed  in  great  measure  through  an  imprudent  precipitation  ; 
that  the  Duke  had  given  universal  satisfaction,  but  there  were 


1336.]  GLOOMI    PROSPECTS  489 

great  prejudices  to  surmount,  and  the  recollection  of  Marie 
Antoinette  and  Marie  Louise.  He  thought  the  advantages  of 
the  match  were  overrated  at  Paris,  but  they  were  so  anxious 
for  it  there  that  the  disappointment  was  considerable  ;  he  said 
he  thought  that  it  still  might  be  brought  about.  These  are 
the  few  fragments  I  have  retained  from  the  talk  we  had. 

November  13th. — Nomination  of  the  sheriffs  yesterday. 
Two  of  the  judges — old  Park  and  Alderson — would  not  send 
me  their  lists,  nonsensically  alleging  that  it  was  unconstitu- 
tional ;  all  the  others  did.1  Old  Park  is  peevish  and  foolish. 
The  Ministers  are  come  to  town,  having  enough  upon  their 
hands ;  the  war  in  Spain,  and  approaching  downfall  of  the 
Christino  cause,  will  be  a  blow  which  will  shake  Palmerston's 
credit  severely,  and  many  think  will  force  him  to  retire, 
which,  however,  I  do  not  expect.  Then  the  nervousness  in 
the  City  about  the  monetary  state,  the  disappearance  of  gold, 
the  cessation  of  orders  from  America,  and  the  consequent 
interruption  to  trade,  and  dismissal  of  thousands  of  workmen 
who  have  been  thrown  out  of  employment,  present  the  pros- 
pect of  a  disquieting  winter.  It  is  remarkable  that  all  ac- 
counts agree  in  stating  that  so  great  is  the  improvidence 
of  the  artisans  and  manufacturing  laborers,  that  none  of 
those  who  have  been  in  the  receipt  of  the  highest  wages  have 
saved  any  thing  against  the  evil  days  with  which  they  are 
menaced.  Rice  affected  to  be  very  cheerful  yesterday,  and 
said  it  would  all  come  right.  A  good  deal  of  alarm,  however, 
prevails  in  what  are  called  practical  quarters.  Then  there  is 
a  split  among  the  Radicals,  some  of  whom  are  dissatisfied 
that  Government  will  not  take  up  their  views,  and  others  are 
affronted  at  the  personal  neglect  or  incivility  which  they 
have  experienced.  As  the  Ministers  disclaim  any  connection 
with  the  Radicals,  while  existing  upon  their  support,  they 
think  it  necessary  in  proof  of  the  first  to  exclude  them  from 
any  participation  in  those  social  civilities  which  Ministers 
usually  dispense  to  their  adherents,  and  as  these  patriots  are 
not  free  from  the  same  stirrings  of  pride  and  vanity  which 
are  found  in  other  men,  they  are  mortified  and  disgusted,  as 
well  as  indignant,  at  such  unworthy  usage;  they  will,  how- 
ever, smooth  their  ruffled  plumage  before  Parliament  meets, 
for  they  must  support  the  present  Government,  and  Govern- 

1  [The  lists  of  sheriffs  for  the  ensuing:  year  arc  commonly  handed  in  by  the 
judges  to  the  Clerk  of  the  Council  in  the  "Court  of  Exchequer  on  the  morrow 
of  St.  Martin.] 


i90  KEIGtf   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

ment  will  perhaps  be  a  little  more  cordial,  as  they  can't  do 
without  these  allies. 

November  Yith. — I  have  had  two  other  conversations  with 
Esterhazy  at  different  times.  He  went  to  Brighton  and  saw 
the  King,  whom  he  thought  much  baisse,  but  I  do  not  know 
whether  it  is  a  proof  of  it  that  he  could  not  prevail  upon  his 
Majesty  to  enter  upon  foreign  politics  with  him.  He  repeated 
to  me  what  he  had  said  before  of  the  necessity  of  a  strict  and 
cordial  union  between  Austria  and  England,  and  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  former  not  to  contest  our  supremacy  and  influence 
in  the  Peninsula,  but  he  harps  upon  the  mode  of  doing  this, 
which  I  don't  quite  understand.  I  gathered  from  him,  and 
have  heard  from  other  quarters,  that  Metternich's  influence  is 
much  diminished,  and  that  the  Austrian  Cabinet  is  no  longer 
ruled  by  him  as  heretofore,  and  that  there  is  not  the  same 
union :  but  there  would  appear  to  be  a  very  complete  union 
in  the  Austrian  Imperial  Family,  who  cling  together  with  a 
sense  of  their  common  interest,  and  in  great  measure  from  the 
respect  and  attachment  which  they  all  feel  for  the  memory  of 
the  late  Emperor.  Esterhazy  said  it  was  remarkable,  consid- 
ering the  condition  of  the  Imperial  House — the  Emperor  1  in 
a  state  bordering  on  idiocy,  not  likely  to  live  above  four  or 
five  years  at  the  outside,  and  his  uncles  all  men  of  talent  and 
energy;  the  next  heir,  the  brother  of  the  Emperor,2  is  a  man 
of  competent  sense,  but  the  late  Emperor's  brothers  he  de- 
scribes to  be  all  superior  men. 

He  told  me  a  great  deal  about  the  Duke  of  Reichstadt, 
who,  if  he  had  lived,  would  have  probably  played  a  great  part 
in  the  world.  He  died  of  a  premature  decay,  brought  on  ap- 
parently by  over-exertio.i  and  over-excitement  ;  his  talents 
were  very  conspicuous,  he  was  p'etri  d'ambition,  worshiped 
the  memory  of  his  father,  and  for  that  reason  never  liked  his 
mother;  his  thoughts  were  incessantly  turned  toward  France, 
and  when  he  heard  of  the  days  of  July  he  said,  "Why  was  I 
not  there  to  take  my  chance  ?  "  He  evinced  great  affection 
and  gratitude  to  his  grandfather,  who,  while  he  scrupulously 
observed  all  his  obligations  toward  Louis  Philippe,  could  not 
help  feeling  a  secret  pride  in  the  aspiring  genius  and  ambition 

1  [The  Emperor  Ferdinand,  here  described,  filled,  the  throne  until  1&48. 
•when  he_  abdicated  in  the  great  convulsion  of  that  year;  he  spent  the  rest  of 
his  life  in  retirement  at  Prague,  but  he  survived  this  prediction  nearly  forty 
years.] 

2  [The  Archduke  Franz  Joseph,  father  of  the  present  Emperor.    But  this 
Archduke  never  filled  the  throne.] 


1837.]  THE   DCKE   OF  REICHSTADT.  491 

of  Napoleon's  son.  He  was  well  educated,  and  day  and  night 
pored  over  the  history  of  his  father's  glorious  career.  He 
delighted  in  military  exercises,  and  not  only  shone  at  the  head 
of  his  regiment,  but  had  already  acquired  the  hereditary  art 
of  ingratiating  himself  with  the  soldiers.  Esterhazy  told  me 
one  anecdote  in  particular,  which  shows  the  absorbing  passion 
of  his  soul  overpowering  the  usual  propensities  of  his  age. 
He  was  to  make  his  first  appearance  in  public  at  a  ball  at  Lady 
Gowley's  (to  which  he  had  shown  great  anxiety  to  go),  and 
was  burning  with  impatience  to  amuse  himself  with  dancing 
and  flirting  with  the  beauties  he  had  admired  in  the  Prater. 
He  went,  but  there  he  met  two  French  marshals — Marmont 
and  Maison.  He  had  no  eyes  or  ears  but  for  them;  from  nine 
in  the  evening  to  five  the  next  morning  he  devoted  himself  to 
these  marshals,  and  conversed  with  them  without  ceasing. 
Though  he  knew  well  enough  all  the  odium  that  attached  to 
Marmont,  he  said  to  him  that  he  was  too  happy  to  have  the 
opportunity  of  making  the  acquaintance  of  one  who  had  been 
among  his  father's  earliest  companions,  and  who  could  tell 
him  so  many  interesting  details  of  his  earlier  days.  Marmont 
subsequently  either  did  give  or  was  to  have  given  him  lessons 
in  strategy. 


CHAPTER    XXXII. 

Crisis  in  the  City— The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer— A  Journey  to  Paris— Lord  Lyndhnrst 
in  Paris — Princess  Lieven — Parties  in  France — Berryer — The  Btrasburg  Conspirators — 
Rotten  State  of  France— Presentation  at  the  Tuileries— Ball  at  the  Tuileries—  Bal 
Musard— Lord  Granville— The  Due  de  Broglie— Position  of  the  Dnc  d'Orleans— Re- 
turn to  England — Conservative  Reaction — Shields  Tirade  against  Lord  Lyndhurst — 
Lyndhurst  as  a  Tory  Leader— Angry  Debate  on  Church  Rates— The  Government  on 
the  Brink  of  Resignation— Sir  R.  Peel's  Prospects— The  King  and  Lord  Aylmer— 
Death  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert — Ministerial  Compromise — Westminster  Election— Majority 
of  the  Princess  Victoria— The  King's  Illness— The  King's  Letter  to  the  Princess- 
Preparations  for  the  Council— Sir  R.  Peel  on  the  Prospects  of  the  New  Reign—  Prayers 
ordered  for  the  King's  Recovery— Affairs  of  Lord  Ponsonby— Death  of  King  William 
IV.— First  Council  of  Queen  Victoria— The  Queen  proclaimed— Character  of  William 
IV. 

1837. 

January  6th. — I  met  Robarts  at  dinner  yesterday,  who 
gave  me  an  account  of  the  alarm  which  has  recently  pervaded 
the  City  about  monetary  matters,  from  the  low  state  of  the 
exchanges,  the  efflux  of  gold,  and  the  confusion  produced  by 
the  embarrassments  of  the  Groat  Northern  and  Central  Bank. 


492  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXXII. 

These  financial  details  are  not  peculiarly  interesting  in  them- 
selves, and  are  only  worth  noticing  from  the  light  they  throw 
upon  the  capacity  of  our  rulers,  and  the  estimation  in  which 
the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  is  held  among  the  great 
moneyed  authorities.1  Nothing  can  in  fact  be  lower  than  it 
is.  Robarts,  a  stanch  Whig  and  thick-and-thin  supporter  of 
Government,  told  me  that  he  was  quite  unequal  to  the  sit- 
uation he  held  ;  that  these  embarrassments  had  been  predicted 
to  him,  and  the  remedy  pointed  out  long  ago  by  practical 
men;  that  the  most  eminent  bankers  in  the  city — Patterson 
the  Governor  of  the  Bank,  Grote,  Glyn,  himself,  and  others — 
had  successively  been  consulted  by  the  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, and  they  had  all  expressed  the  same  opinion  and 
given  the  same  advice  ;  but  that  he  had  met  their  conclusions 
with  a  long  chain  of  reasoning  founded  upon  the  most  falla- 
cious premises,  columns  of  prices  of  stocks  and  exchequer-bills 
in  former  years,  and  calculations  and  conjectures  upon  these 
data,  which  the  keen  view  and  sagacious  foresight  of  these 
men  (whose  wits  are  sharpened  by  the  magnitude  of  their  im- 
mediate interest  in  the  results,  and  whose  long  habits  make 
them  so  familiar  with  the  details)  detected  and  exposed,  not 
without  some  feelings  both  of  resentment  and  contempt  for 
the  Minister  who  clung  to  his  own  theories  in  preference  to 
their  practical  conclusions.  What  they  originally  advised 
Rice  to  do  was  to  raise  the  interest  on  exchequer-bills,  which 
he  refused,  and  afterward  was  compelled  to  do.  Robarts 
said  that  he  had  no  doubt  that  if  Peel  had  been  in  office  he 
would  have  shown  himself  equal  to  cope  with  the  difficulty 
which  Rice  had  proved  himself  so  incompetent  to  meet.  The 
raising  of  the  seige  of  Bilbao  will  have  given  Paimerston  a 
lift,  but  between  our  foreign  and  our  financial  affairs  the  Min- 
isters will  not  have  an  easy  session  of  the  next. 

Dover,  January  12th. — Having  resolved,  after  many  strug- 
gles, to  go  to  Paris,  here  I  am  on  my  way,  and  on  arriving 
find  that  it  blows  a  hurricane,  and  there  is  little  or  no  chance 
of  being  able  to  cross  to-morrow ;  for  all  I  know  I  may  be  kept 
here  for  the  next  three  days. 

January  13th. — I  might  have  gone  very  well  this  morn- 
ing, but  was  persuaded  not  to  start  by  the  mate  of  the  Govern- 
ment packet,  and,  like  a  fool,  I  listened  to  him.  It  was  a  fine 
calm  morning. 

1  [Mr.  Spring  Bice  was  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  in  Lord  Afelboume's 
second  Administration  until  1839,  when  he  was  raised  to  the  peerage  '.mder  the 
title  of  Lord  Monteagle  of  Brandon.] 


1837.]  AT  PARIS.  493 

Paris,  January  17 'th. — Arrived  here  last  night  at  five, 
having  left  Dover  at  a  quarter  to  one  the  day  before ;  three 
hours  -to  Boulogne,  twenty-two  hours  to  Paris. 

I  made  a  very  prosperous  journey ;  went  to  the  Embassy 
in  the  evening,  and  found  a  heap  of  people — Mol6,  Montalivet, 
Lyndhurst,  Madame  de  Lieven,  Madame  de  Dino,  Talleyrand, 
etc. 

fans,  January  19th. — On  Tuesday  went  about  visiting ; 
found  nobody  but  Madame  Alfred  de  Noailles  and  Raikes ; 
was  to  have  gone  to  the  Chamber,  but  the  ticket  did  not 
arrive  in  time ;  dined  at  the  Embassy.  Wednesday,  in  the 
morning,  to  the  gallery  of  the  Louvre ;  dined  with  Talley- 
rand ;  to  Madame  de  Lieven's  and  Madame  Graham's.  Talley- 
rand as  well  as  ever,  except  weaker  on  his  legs ;  asked  me 
to  dine  there  whenever  I  was  not  engaged.  In  the  morning 
called  at  the  Tuileries,  and  left  a  note  for  the  Duke  of  Orleans's 
aide-de-camp,  asking  to  be  presented  to  his  Royal  Highness ; 
and  at  night  my  mother  went  to  Court,  and  begged  leave  to 
bring  me  there  to  present  me  to  the  Royal  Family.  Lyndhurst 
sets  off  to  London  this  morning,  and  I  had  only  an  oppor- 
tunity of  exchanging  a  few  words  with  him.  He  told  me  he 
had  never  passed  such  an  agreeable  time  as  the  last  four 
months;  not  a  moment  of  ennui;  had  become  acquainted  with 
a  host  of  remarkable  people  of  all  sorts,  political  characters  of 
all  parties,  and  the  litterateurs,  such  as  Victor  Hugo,  Balzac, 
etc.,  the  latter  of  whom,  he  says,  is  a  very  agreeable  man. 
He  told  me  that  "  Le  Pere  Goriot"  is  a  true  story,  and  that 
since  its  publication  he  had  become  acquainted  with  some 
more  circumstances  which  would  have  made  it  still  more  strik- 
ing. He  has  been  leading  here  "  une  vie  de  garcon "  and 
making  himself  rather  ridiculous  in  some  respects.  He  said 
tome:  "I  suppose  the  Government  will  get  on  ;  I'm  sure  I 
shall  not  go  on  in  the  House  of  Lords  this  year  as  I  did  the 
last.  I  was  induced  by  circumstances  and  some  little  excite- 
ment to  take  a  more  prominent  part  than  usual  last  session ; 
but  I  don't  see  what  I  got  by  it  except  abuse.  I  thought  I  should 
not  hear  any  of  the  abuse  that  was  poured  upon  me  when  I 
came  here,  and  got  out  of  the  reach  of  the  English  news- 
papers, but,  on  the  contrary,  I  find  it  all  concentrated  in 
Galignani"  Lyndhurst  and  Ellice  have  been  great  friends 
here.  Madame  de  Lieven  seems  to  have  a  very  agreeable 
position  at  Paris.  She  receives  every  night,  and  opens  her 
house  to  all  comers.  Being  neutral  ground,  men  of  all 


494     .  EEIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXXII. 

parties  meet  there,  and  some  of  the  most  violent  antagonists 
have  occasionally  joined  in  amicable  and  curious  discussion. 
It  is  probably  convenient  to  her  Court  that  she  should  be 
here  under  such  circumstances,  for  a  woman  of  her  talents 
cannot  fail  to  pick  up  a  good  deal  of  interesting,  and  perhaps 
useful,  information  ;  and  as  she  is  not  subject  to  the  opera- 
tion of  the  same  passions  and  prejudices  which  complicated 
and  disturbed  her  position  in  England,  she  is  able  to  form  a 
juster  estimate  of  the  characters  and  the  objects  of  public 
men.  She  says  Paris  is  a  very  agreeable  place  to  live  at, 
but  expresses  an  unbounded  contempt  for  the  French  char- 
acter, and  her  lively  sense  of  the  moral  superiority  of  Eng- 
land. I  asked  her  who  were  the  men  whom  she  was  best 
inclined  to  praise.  She  likes  Mole",  as  pleasing,  intelligent, 
and  gentlemanlike  ;  Thiers  the  most  brilliant,  very  lively 
and  amusing ;  Guizot  and  Berryer,  both  very  remarkable. 
She  talked  freely  enough  of  Ellice,  who  is  her  dear  friend, 
and  from  whom  she  draws  all  she  can  of  English  politics  ; 
that  he  had  come  here  for  the  purpose  of  intriguing  against 
the  present  Government,  and  trying  to  set  up  Thiers  again, 
and  that  he  had  fancied  he  should  manage  it.  Mol^1  was 
fully  aware  of  it,  and  felt  toward  him  accordingly.  Lord 
Granville,  who  was  attached  to  the  Due  de  Broglie,  and  there- 
fore violently  opposed  to  Thiers,  when  he  became  Minister, 
soon  became  even  more  partial  to  Thiers,  which  sudden  turn 
was  the  more  curious,  because  such  had  been  their  original 
antipathy  that  Lady  Granville  had  been  personally  uncivil  to 
Madame  Thiers,  so  much  so  that  Thiers  has  said  to  Madame 
de  Lieven  that  "he  would  have  her  to  know  it  was  not  to  be 
endured  that  an  Embassadress  should  behave  with  such 
marked  incivility  to  the  wife  of  the  Prime  Minister,  and  if 
she  chose  to  continue  so  to  do  she  might  get  her  husband 
sent  away."  The  other  replied,  "Monsieur  Thiers,  if  you  say 
this  to  me  with  the  intention  of  its  being  repeated  to  Lady 
Granville,  I  tell  you  you  must  go  elsewhere  for  the  purpose, 
for  I  do  not  intend  to  do  so."  I  asked  her  whether  it  had 
been  repeated,  and  she  said  she  thought  probably  it  had 

1  [M.  Mole"  was  then  Prime  Minister.  The  overthrow  of  M.  Thiers  on  the 
Spanish  que_stion  had  been  regarded  as  a  check  by  the  English  Government, 
and  Mr.  Ellice  was  a  cordial  friend  and  supporter  of  Thiers.  The  resentment 
of  Lord  Palmerston  at  the  refusal  of  the  King  to  support  the  cause  of  the  Queen 
in  Spain  by  a.  direct  intervention,  was  the  commencement  of  that  coolness 
which  is  noticed  further  on,  and  which  led  eventually  to  most  important  re- 
sults.] 


1837.]  PEEL'S  GLASGOW  SPEECHES.  495 

been  through  Ellice,  for  soon  after  all  was  smiles  and  civility 
between  them.  She  talked  a  great  deal  about  England,  and 
of  the  ignorance  of  the  French  about  it ;  that  Mole",  for 
example,  had  said,  "  It  is  true  that  we  are  not  in  an  agree- 
able state,  but  England  is  in  a  still  worse."  The  King, 
however,  is  of  a  different  opinion,  and  appears  better  to 
understand  the  nature  of  our  system.  She  described  him 
(Mole)  as  not  the  cleverest  and  most  brilliant,  but  by  far 
the  most  sensible,  sound,  and  well-judging  man  of  them  all. 

Peel's  Glasgow  speeches  arrived  yesterday,  that  is,  were 
in  general  circulation,  for  the  King  received  on  the  16th  a 
newspaper  containing  the  speech  made  there  on  the  13th,  an 
instance  (as  it  seems  to  me)  of  unexampled  rapidity.  Lord 
Granville,  who  praises  any  thing  against  his  own  party  very 
reluctantly,  told  me  he  thought  Peel's  speech  at  the  dinner 
very  dexterous,  and  Ellice  said,  though  there  was  nothing 
new  in  it,  he  thought  it  would  produce  a  great  effect. 

January  20th. — Yesterday  went  about  visiting,  found 
Montrond  ill.  Sat  a  long  time  with  Lady  Granville,  who 
was  very  amusing,  and  told  me  a  great  deal  about  the  char- 
acters of  the  people  and  the  tracasseries  in  society  ;  dined 
at  the  Club,  and  at  night  to  Madame  de  Lieven's,  where  I 
found  Berryer,  a  remarkable-looking  man,  but  not  like  what 
I  expected  :  dark,  stout,  countenance  very  intelligent,  with  a 
cheerful,  cunning,  and  rather  leering  look,  such  as  a  clever 
Irish  priest  might  have,  neither  in  look  nor  manner  very 
refined.  He  soon  went  away,  so  I  heard  nothing  of  his  con- 
versation. Everybody  I  have  met  has  been  very  civil  and 
obliging,  and  I  ought  to  be  and  am  grateful  for  my  reception, 
but  I  wish  myself  back  again,  and  ask  myself  a  hundred  times 
why  I  came.  It  is  tiresome  to  go  through  introductions  to  a 
parcel  of  people  whom  I  shall  probably  never  see  again,  whose 
names  I  can  scarcely  remember,  and  with  whom,  be  they  ever 
so  agreeable,  I  have  not  time  to  form  any  intimacy.  They  all 
ask  the  same  question,  "  Do  you  make  a  long  stay  here  ?  "  to 
which  I  universally  reply,  "As  long  as  I  can,"  which,  being 
interpreted,  means,  I  shall  be  off  as  soon  as  I  can  find  a  decent 
pretext.  It  may  be  a  very  delightful  place  to  live  at,  but  for 
a  flying  visit  (as  at  present  inclined)  I  don't  think  it  answers. 

January  21st  and  22d. — Walked  about  and  rejoiced  in 
the  Madeleine,  which  is  alone  worth  coming  to  Paris  to  see. 
Greece  and  Rome  in  the  days  of  their  glory  never  erected  a 
grander  temple.  I  find  Paris  tolerable,  and  that  is  all.  Dined 


496  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [Ciup.  XXXII. 

with  Madame  de  Noailles  at  the  H6tel  de  Poix,  then  to  the 
Opera.  On  the  22d  I  walked  to  the  Arc  de  Triomphe,  won- 
derfully fine,  and  clambered  to  the  top.  The  view  is  well 
worth  the  trouble,  and  above  all  the  Madeleine  is  seen  to 
great  advantage  from  the  elevation ;  all  its  fine  proportions 
strikingly  developed,  and  bringing  to  my  mind  the  Temple  of 
Neptune  at  Paestum.  Dined  at  the  Embassy,  where  was 
nobody  of  note  but  M.  de  Broglie,  and  then  to  Madame  de 
Lieven's. 

January  23t?. — Rained  all  day,  dined  at  the  Grahams,  with 
Madame  de  Lieven  and  many  people  of  no  note,  and  went 
afterward  to  Madame  de  Flahault's  beautiful  house,  where  was 
all  the  fashion  of  France  of  the  Liberal  and  Royal  faction ; 
no  Carlists.  Some  very  handsome  women,  particularly  the 
Duchesse  d'Istria. 

Ellice  told  me  that  his  letters  from  England  announced 
smooth  water  between  Whigs  and  Radicals,  and  that  the  lat- 
ter were  coming  up  to  support  the  Government  in  good-hurnor. 
The  event  here  in  these  last  days  has  been  the  acquittal  of  the 
Strasburg  prisoners,  of  military  men  taken  in  the  commission 
of  overt  acts  of  mutiny  and  high-treason.1  By  the  law,  when 
military  men  and  civilians  are  indicted  for  the  same  offense, 
the  former  cannot  be  brought  before  a  court-martial,  but  must 
be  tried  by  a  jury ;  the  jury  decide  according  to  their  feelings 
or  their  prejudices,  and  appear  to  care  nothing  for  the  law, 
and  an  Alsatian  jury  is  said  to  be  republican.  These  men 
were  therefore  acquitted  against  the  clearest  and  most  un- 
doubted evidence,  and  their  acquittal  was  hailed  as  a  triumph. 
It  produces  considerable  annoyance  and  surprise,  but  not  so 
great  a  sensation  as  I  should  have  expected. 

There  appears  to  be  something  rotten  in  the  state  of  this 
country ;  the  system  stands  on  unstable  foundations,  the  people 
are  demoralized,  in  vain  we  look  for  fixed  principles  or  deep 
convictions.  Some  are  indifferent  to  the  fate  of  the  monarchy 
because  they  hate  the  monarch,  others  rejoice  at  attempts  on 
the  monarch  from  aversion  to  monarchy,  and,  as  far  as  my 
cursory  observation  and  casual  observation  instruct  me,  I  see 
only  a  confusion  and  caprice  of  passions,  prejudices,  and  opin- 

1  [These  were  the  accomplices  of  Prince  Louis  Napoleon  Bonaparte  in  hia 
first  attempt  made  at  Strasburg  on  the  30th  of  November,  1836.  The  Prince 
himself  was  sent  off  to  the  United  States  in  a  French  frigate.  His  accomplices 
were  tried  at  Colmar  in  the  ordinary  course  of  law,  and  acquitted  by  the  jury, 
who  refused  to  convict  them  when  the  head  of  the  conspiracy  was  not  brought 
to  trial.] 


1837.]  RECEPTION  AT  THE  FRENCH  COURT.  497 

ions,  which  are  only  reduced  to  any  thing  like  order  by  the 
strong  sober  sense  and  the  firmness  of  the  King,  who  is  by 
far  the  ablest  man  among  them. 

January  25th. — On  the  24th  I  walked  about  Paris,  dined 
at  the  Embassy,  and  went  to  Court  at  night;  about  fifty 
English,  forty  Americans,  and  several  other  foreigners,  were 
presented.  The  Palace  is  very  magnificent ;  the  present  King 
has  built  a  new  staircase,  which  makes  the  suite  of  rooms 
continuous,  and  the  whole  has  been  regilt  and  painted.  We 
were  arranged  in  the  throne-room  by -nations,  the  English 
first,  and  at  a  quarter  before  nine  the  doors  of  the  royal 
apartments  were,  opened,  and  the  Ro}*al  Family  came  forth. 
We  all  stood  in  a  long  line  (single  file)  reaching  through  the 
two  rooms,  beginning  and  ending  again  at  the  door  of  the 
King's  apartment.  The  King  walked  down  the  line  attended 
by  Lord  Granville,  then  the  Queen  with  the  eldest  Princess 
under  her  arm,  then  Madame  Adelaide  with  the  other,  and  then 
the  Duke  of  Orleans.  Aston  *  attended  the  Queen,  and  the 
attaches  the  others.  They  all  speak  to  each  individual,  and 
by  some  strange  stretch  of  invention  find  something  to  say. 
The  King  is  too  civil ;  he  has  a  fine  head,  and  closely  resem- 
bles the  pictures  of  Louis  XIV.  The  Queen  is  very  gracious 
and  dignified,  Adelaide  very  good-humored,  and  the  Duke  of 
Orleans  extremely  princely  in  his  manners.  This  morning  I 
went  to  the  Tuileries  by  appointment,  when  he  received  me, 
kept  me  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour  talking  about  race-horses, 
and  invited  me  to  breakfast  on  Saturday,  and  to  go  with  him 
to  Meudon  to  see  his  stud. 

Then  I  went  sight-seeing ;  to  the  Invalides,  the  Pantheon, 
and  the  Madeleine.  The  former  is  very  well  worth  seeing,  and 
nothing  is  mors  remarkable  than  the  kitchen,  which  is  the 
sweetest  and  the  cleanest  I  ever  saw.  The  Chapel  is  fine, 
with  no  remarkable  tombs  except  those  of  Turenne  and 
Vauban.  The  Pantheon  is  under  repair ;  there  are  the  tombs 
of  Voltaire  and  Rousseau.  The  interior  of  the  Madeleine  is 
very  rich,  but  it  is  inferior  to  the  outside ;  the  simple  grandeur 
of  the  latter  is  somewhat  frittered  away  in  the  minute  orna- 
ments and  the  numerous  patches  of  colored  marble  of  tho 
Church.  However,  it  will  be  with  all  its  faults  a  magnificent 
building. 

I  ended  my  day  (the  25th)  by  going  to  a  ball  at  the 
Tuileries,  one  of  the  great  balls,  and  a  magnificent  spectacle 
»  [The  British  Secretary  of  Embassy,  afterward  Sir  Arthur  Aston.] 


498  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXXII. 

indeed.  The  long  line  of  light  gleaming  through  the  whole 
length  of  the  palace  is  striking  as  it  is  approached,  and  the 
interior,  with  the  whole  suit?  of  apartments  brilliantly  illumi- 
nated, and  glittering  from  one  end  to  the  other  with  diamonds 
and  feathers  and  uniforms,  and  dancing  in  all  the  several 
rooms,  made  a  splendid  display.  The  supper  in  the  theatre 
was  the  finest  thing  I  ever  saw  of  the  kind;  all  the  women  sup 
first,  and  afterward  the  men,  the  tables  being  renewed  over 
and  over  again.  There  was  an  array  of  servants  in  gorgeous 
liveries,  and  the  apartment  was  lit  by  thousands  of  candles 
(no  lamps)  and  as  light  as  day.  The  company  amounted  to 
between  3,000  and  4,000,  from  all  the  great  people  down  to 
national  guards,  and  even  private  soldiers.  None  of  the 
Carlists  were  there,  as  they  none  of  them  choose  to  go  to 
Court.  The  King  retired  before  eleven ;  it  was  said  that  he 
had  received  anonymous  letters  warning  him  of  some  in- 
tended attempt  on  his  person,  and  extraordinary  precautions 
were  taken  to  guard  against  the  entrance  of  any  improper 
people. 

January  26th. — Having  seen  all  the  high  society  the  night 
before,  I  resolved  to  see  all  the  low  to-night,  and  went  to 
Musard's  ball — a  most  curious  scene ;  two  large  rooms  in  the 
rue  St. -Honore1  almost  thrown  into  one,  a  numerous  and  ex- 
cellent orchestra,  a  prodigious  crowd  of  people,  most  of  them 
in  costume,  and  all  the  women  masked.  There  was  every 
description  of  costume,  but  that  which  was  the  most  general 
was  the  dress  of  a  French  post-boy,  in  which  both  males  and 
females  seemed  to  delight.  It  was  well-regulated  uproar  and 
orderly  confusion.  When  the  music  struck  up  they  began 
dancing  all  over  the  rooms ;  the  whole  mass  was  in  motion, 
but  though  with  gestures  the  most  vehement  and  grotesque, 
and  a  license  almost  unbounded,  the  figure  of  the  dance  never 
seemed  to  be  confused,  and  the  dancers  were  both  expert  in 
their  capers  and  perfect  in  their  evolutions.  Nothing  could 
be  more  licentious  than  the  movements  of  the  dancers,  and 
they  only  seemed  to  be  restrained  within  limits  of  common 
decency  by  the  cocked  hats  and  burnished  helmets  of  the 
police  and  gendarmes  which  towered  in  the  midst  of  them. 
After  quadrilling  and  waltzing  away,  at  a  signal  given  they 
began  galloping  round  the  room  ;  then  they  rushed  pell-mell, 
couple  after  couple,  like  Bedlamites  broke  loose,  but  not  the 
slightest  accident  occurred.  I  amused  myself  with  this  strange 
and  grotesque  sight  for  an  hour  or  more,  and  then  came  home. 


1837.]  RELATIONS  OF  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.  499 

January  27th. — Called  on  Talleyrand  and  sat  with  him 
for  an  hour.  He  talked  of  England  in  a  very  Conservative 
strain.  I  called  on  the  Due  de  Broglie,  Mesdames  de  Mares- 
calchi  and  Durazzo,  dined  at  the  Embassy,  then  to  Madame 
de  Lieven's  and  Pembroke's  concert.  Not  a  profitable  life, 
but  not  dull,  and  the  day  glides  awav. 

February  2d. — Nothing  worth  noticing  for  the  last  three 
or  four  days.  Dined  the  day  before  yesterday  with  the  Due 
de  Poix,  and  went  to  Hope's  ball ;  his  house  is  a  sumptuous 
palace  in  miniature,  all  furnished  and  decorated  with  incon- 
ceivable luxury  and  recherche ;  one  room  hung  with  cache- 
mires.  Last  night  to  a  small  ball  at  Court.  Supper  in  the 
gallery  de  Diane — round  tables,  all  the  ladies  supping  first ; 
the  whole  thing  as  beautiful  and  magnificent  as  possible,  and 
making  all  our  fetes  look  pitiful  and  mean  after  it. 

Our  King's  speech  was  here  before  seven  o'clock  yester- 
day evening,  about  twenty-nine  hours  after  it  was  delivered ; 
a  rapidity  of  transmission  almost  incredible.  Lord  Granville 
had  predicted  to  me  in  the  morning  that  they  would  be  very 
angry  here  at  no  mention  being  made  of  France,  and  so  it 
was.  I  heard  the  same  thing  from  other  quarters,  and  he 
told  me  that  he  had  found  himself  not  deceived  in  his  expec- 
tations, and  that  the  King  had  himself  complained.  The 
French  Government  had  taken  such  pains  latterly  to  concil- 
iate ours,  by  the^ir  speeches  in  the  Chambers,  and  by  applying 
for  votes  of  money  to  enable  them  to  employ  more  custom- 
house officers  for  the  express  purpose  of  preventing  the  trans- 
mission of  arms  and  stores  to  the  Spanish  Pretender;  in 
short,  giving  us  every  proof  of  good-will ;  that  Lord  Granville 
was  desirous  of  having  some  expressions  of  corresponding 
good-will  and  civility  inserted  in  the  speech,  and  said  as  much 
to  Lord  Palmerston ;  but  he  refused,  and  replied  that  as  they 
could  not  speak  of  France  with  praise,  it  was  better  not  to 
mention  her  at  all.  I  have  been  riding  with  Lord  Granville 
the  last  two  days,  when  he  talked  a  good  deal  about  France 
and  French  affairs.  His  own  position  here  is  wonderfully 
agreeable,  because  all  the  business  of  the  two  countries  is 
transacted  by  him  here,  and  Sebastiani's  is  little  more  than  a 
nominal  embassy.  This  has  long  been  the  case,  having  begun 
in  Canning's  time ;  then  the  great  intimacy  which  subsisted 
between  the  Due  de  Broglie  and  Lord  Granville  confirmed  it 
during  his  Ministry,  and  the  principal  cause  of  Talleyrand's 
hatred  to  Palmerston  was  the  refusal  of  the  latter  to  alter  the 


500  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXXII. 

practice  when  he  was  in  England,  and  his  mortification  at 
finding  the  part  he  played  in  London  to  be  secondary  to  that 
of  the  British  Embassador  in  Paris. 

The  Due  de  Broglie  seems  to  have  been  the  most  high- 
minded  and  independent  of  all  the  Ministers  who  have  been 
in  place,  and  the  only  one  who  kicked  against  the  personal 
supremacy  of  the  King  in  the  conduct  of  affairs.  He  looked 
to  constitutional  analogies,  and  thought  it  incompatible  with 
Ministerial  responsibility.  The  King  appealed  to  the  example 
of  William  III.,  and  said  to  Lord  Granville,  "  King  William 
presided  in  person  at  his  council  board,  after  your  revolu- 
tion ?"  It  was  Broglie's  scruple  (for  it  hardly  ever  amounted 
to  resistance)  on  this  head  that  made  the  King  dislike  him  so 
much.  It  is  certainly  true  that  the  present  state  of  things  is 
an  anomaly,  but  France  is  in  its  infancy  as  to  constitutional 
practice,  and  the  doctrine  of  Ministerial  responsibility,  with  all 
its  indispensable  consequences,  is  not  understood.  Nothing 
can  exemplify  this  more  than  the  recent  case  of  a  man  which 
was  agitated  in  the  Chambers,  and  passed  off  so  easily.  He 
was  one  of  the  French  refugees  in  Switzerland,  and  Mon- 
talivet,  Minister  of  the  Interior,  the  man  most  in  the  King's 
confidence,  engaged  him  in  his  service  to  act  as  a  spy  on  the 
other  refugees,  but  without  letting  Thiers  (President  of  the 
Council  and  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs)  know  that  he  had 
done  so.  Accordingly  Thiers  demanded,  through  the  French 
Embassador,  the  Due  de  Montebello,  that  thfs  man  (with  the 
rest)  should  be  expelled  from  Switzerland,  he  being  at  the 
time  the  agent  of  Thiers's  own  colleague.  In  the  course  of 
the  subsequent  discussions  this  fact  came  out,  when  Thiers 
declared  he  had  been  ignorant  of  his  employment,  and  Mon- 
talivet  merely  said  that  he  had  acted  as  he  deemed  best  for 
the  interest  of  the  country,  and  this  excuse  was  taken  and 
nothing  more  said.  Thiers  took  it  more  quietly  than  he  would 
otherwise  have  done,  because  he  had  committed  himself  in 
his  correspondence  with  Montebello,  and  it  would  not  have 
suited  him  to  have  his  letters  published.  At  that  time  the 
Duke  of  Orleans  was  gone  to  Vienna,  and  Thiers  was  in  all 
the  fervor  of  his  hopes  of  obtaining  one  of  the  Archduch- 
esses for  the  Prince,  and  he  was  therefore  the  humble  ser- 
vant of  Austria,  and  endeavoring  to  court  her  favor  in  all 
ways,  especially  by  truckling  to  her  views  in  the  affair  of  the 
refugees. 

I  asked  Madame  de  Lieven  what  was  the  reason  that  the 


1837.]  THE  DUKE  OF  ORLEANS.  501 

great  Powers  woulcTnot  let  the  Duke  of  Orleans  find  a  wife, 
and  why  especially  the  Emperor  Nicholas  (who,  it  was  to  be 
presumed,  desired  the  continuance  of  peace  and  order  in 
France,  and  therefore  of  this  dynasty)  took  every  opportu- 
nity of  showing  his  contempt  and  aversion  for  the  King, 
being  the  only  Sovereign  who  had  never  congratulated  him 
by  letter  on  his  various  escapes  from  assassination.  She 
replied  that  it  was  not  surprising  that  Sovereigns  and  their 
families  should  be  indisposed  to  send  their  daughters  to  a 
country  which  they  looked  upon  as  always  liable  to  a  revo- 
lution, and  to  marry  them  to  a  prince  always  in  danger  of 
being  expelled  from  France,  and  perhaps  from  Europe  ;  and 
that  the  Emperor  (whom  she  did  not  excuse  in  this  respect) 
could  not  bring  himself  to  write  Monsieur  man  Frbre  to  Louis 
Philippe,  and  for  that  reason  would  never  compliment  him 
but  through  his  embassador ;  au  reste,  that  the  Duke  of 
Orleans  would  find  a  wife  among  the  German  princesses.  It 
is,  however,  very  ridiculous  that  second  and  third  rate  roy- 
alties should  give  themselves  all  sorts  of  airs,  and  affect  to 
hold  cheap  the  King  of  France's  eldest  son,  and  talk  of  his 
alliance  as  a  degradation.  There  are  two  Wlirtemberg 
princesses,  daughters  of  the  Duchess  of  Oldenburg,  who  talk 
in  this  strain  ;  one  of  them  is  good-looking,  and  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  in  his  recent  expedition  in  Germany,  had  the  curi- 
osity to  travel  incognito  out  of  his  way  to  take  a  look  at 
them.  The  King,  their  father,  who  heard  of  it,  complained 
to  Madame  de  Lieven  of  the  impertinence  of  such  conduct ; 
but  the  girls  were  enchanted,  and,  with  all  their  pretended 
aversion  and  contempt  for  the  Orleans  family,  were  in  a  flut- 
ter of  excited  vanity  at  his  having  come  to  look  at  them,  and 
in  despair  at  not  having  seen  him  themselves. 

London,  February  1th. — Left  Paris  on  Friday  at  five 
o'clock,  and  got  to  Boulogne  at  half-past  one  on  Saturday  ; 
passed  the  day  with  my  cousin  Richard,  and  walked  all  over 
Boulogne,  the  ramparts  and  the  pier. 

February  22cl. — An  unhappy  business  not  to  be  recorded 
here  has  so  completely  absorbed  my  attention  that  I  could 
not  think  of  politics  or  of  any  thing  else  that  is  passing  in 
the  world.  The  Session  had  opened  (before  I  arrived)  with 
a  reconciliation,  as  usual,  between  the  Whigs  and  Radicals, 
but  with  a  general  opinion  that  the  Government  was  never- 
theless rn  considerable  danger.  In  a  long  correspondence 
which  I  had  with  Tavistock  I  urged  that  "his  friends  ought 


502  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXXIL 

to  give  up  the  appropriation  clause,  ancl  propose  poor  laws 
and  payment  of  the  Catholic  clergy.  The  first  two  they  have 
done,  and  the  last  probably  they  really  cannot  do.  As  I  have 
all  along  thought,  it  will  be  reserved  for  Peel  to  carry  this 
great  measure  into  effect.  Caring  much  for  the  measure,  and 
nothing  for  men  of  either  party,  1  shall  rejoice  to  take  it  from 
anybody's  hands. 

February  25th. — I  was  interrupted  while  writing,  and 
since  I  began,  the  division  of  eighty  in  favor  of  the  Irish 
Corporation  Bill  appears  to  have  settled  that  question,  and 
at  the  same  time  those  of  dissolution  and  change.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  Session  the  Tories  were  (as  they  are  always 
ready  to  be)  in  high  spirits,  and  the  Government  people  in 
no  small  alarm.  The  elections  had  generally  gone  against 
them,  and  there  were  various  symptoms  of  a  reaction.  In 
Scotland  the  Renfrewshire  election  was  attributed  to  Peel's 
visit  and  speech,  and  old  Lauderdale  wrote  word  that  it  was 
the  most  remarkable  proof  of  a  change  "there  which  had 
occurred  since  the  Reform  Bill.  Nothing  was  talked  of  but 
a  dissolution,  of  Peel's  taking  office,  and  many  people  confi- 
dently predicted  that  new  elections  would  produce  a  Tory 
majority.  Besides,  it  was  argued  that  the  same  spirit  which 
turned  out  Peel  in  1835  could  not  be  roused  again,  and  that 
several  moderate  Whigs  would  give  him  their  support  if  he 
endeavored  to  go  on  with  this  Parliament.  In  the  midst  of 
all  these  speculations  this  debate  came  on.  It  was  exceed- 
ingly feeble  on  the  part  of  the  Opposition.  Stanley,  Graham, 
and  Peel,  successively  spoke,  and  none  of  them  well ;  the  latter 
was  unusually  heavy.  The  best  speeches  on  the  other  side 
were  Charles  Bailer's  and  Roebuck's  (Radicals),  and  Howick's. 
Shiel  made  a  grand  declamatory  tirade,  chiefly  remarkable  for 
the  scene  produced,  which  was  unexampled  in  the  House,  and 
for  its  credit  may  be  hoped  such  as  never  will  occur  again. 
There  was  a  blackguard  ferocity  in  it  which  would  have  dis- 
graced the  National  Convention  or  the  Jacobin  Club.  Lynd- 
hurst  was  sitting  under  the  gallery,  and  Shiel,  turning  to  him 
as  he  said  it,  uttered  one  of  his  vehement  sentences  against 
the  celebrated  and  unlucky  expression  of  "  aliens."  The  at- 
tack was  direct,  and  it  was  taken  up  by  his  adherents,  already 
excited  by  his  speech.  Then  arose  a  din  and  tumultuous  and 
vociferous  cheering,  such  as  the  walls  never  echoed  to  before ; 
they  stood  up,  all  turning  to  Lyndhurst,  and  they  hooted  and 
shouted  at  him  with  ever}'-  possible  gesture  and  intonation  of 


1837.]  UPROAR  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS.  503 

insult.  1^  lasted  ten  minutes,  the  Speaker  in  vain  endeavor- 
ing to  moderate  the  clamor.  All  this  time  Lyndhurst  sat  to- 
tally unmoved ;  he  neither  attempted  to  stir,  nor  changed  a 
muscle  of  his  countenance.  At  length  they  divided,  and  there 
was  a  majority  of  eighty ;  sixteen  more  than  on  the  same  ques- 
tion last  year. 

The  next  morning  (yesterday)  Wharncliffe  called  on  me, 
and  I  found  that  they  were  prodigiously  depressed  at  this  de- 
feat. He  said  that  they  had  suffered  from  many  unusual  casu- 
alties, sicknesses,  and  deaths,  and  that  their  people  could  not 
be  made  to  attend.  He  instanced  three  cases  of  lukewarmness 
and  indifference.  Sir  G.  Noel  remained  in  the  House  till 
twelve  o'clock,  and  then  went  to  bed ;  Lord  John  Scott  went 
out  of  town  in  the  morning  of  the  division,  because  he  was 
engaged  to  dine  somewhere ;  and  young  Lefroy,  who  had 
paired  with  Shiel  until  this  question,  set  off  with  him  to  em- 
bark for  England  from  Dublin,  and  turned  back  from  the 
steamboat  because  it  blew  hard,  and  he  said  his  mother  would 
be  alarmed  for  his  safety.  Wharncliffe  told  me  that  Peel  is 
very  much  disgusted  at  such  coolness,  and  that,  while  he  is 
slaving  body  and  mind  in  the  cause,  he  cannot  even  depend 
upon  the  corporeal  presence  of  his  idle  and  luxurious  follow- 
ers, who  will  sacrifice  none  of  their  amusements  for  the  cause 
which  they  pretend  to  think  is  in  such  danger.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  rash  and  foolish  (no  small  proportion)  are  dissatisfied 
with  his  caution,  and  the  prudence  which  they  call  timidity ; 
they  are  always  for  doing  something  desperate.  Lyndhurst 
last  year  in  the  House  of  Lords  was  the  man  after  their  own 
hearts, -and  they  were  quite  willing  to  depose  the  Duke  from 
his  leadership  of  the  party,  and  put  themselves  under  the 
guidance  of  Lyndhurst.  When  we  recollect  who  and  what 
Lyndhurst  was  and  is,  it  is  curious  to  see  the  aristocracy  of 
England  adopting  him  for  their  chief;  scarcely  an  English- 
man (for  his  father  was  an  American  painter1),  a  lawyer  of 
fortune,  in  the  sense  in  which  we  say  a  soldier  of  fortune, 
without  any  fixed  principles,  and  only  conspicuous  for  his 
extraordinary  capacity,  he  has  no  interest  but  what  centres 
in  himself,  and  is  utterly  destitute  of  those  associations  which 
naturally  belong  to  an  aristocracy.  There  is  probably  not 
a  man  of  the  party  who  is  not  fully  aware  of  Lyndhurst's 

1  [He  was  entirely  an  Englishman,  for  ho  was  bom  at  Boston  before  America 
wns  separated  from  England,  and  his  whole  family  came  to  this  country  when 
tb  j  war  broke  out.] 


504  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXXII. 

character,  and  they  have  already  experienced  the  results  of 
his  political  daring  in  his  famous  attempt  to  interrupt  the 
Reform  Bill  by  the  postponement  of  Schedule  A ;  and  with 
this  knowledge  and  experience  the}'  follow  him  blindly,  lead 
them  where  he  will.  Wharncliffe  owned  to  me  that  he  saw 
no  alternative  but  the  compromise,  but  that  he  did  not  know 
whether  his  party  would  be  brought  to  consent  to  it.  I  told 
him  that  they  could  not  help  themselves,  and  must  consent; 
besides  that,  if  the  Tithe  Bill  is  passed  they  will  have  got 
the  security  for  the  Church  which  they  require,  and  the 
ground  of  objection  to  the  Corporation  Bill  would  be  cut 
from  under  their  feet.  It  is  remarkable,  and  rather  amusing 
to  a  neutral  like  me,  to  hear  what  each  party  says  of  the 
concessions  of  the  other.  I  see  in  the  Examiner  this  day 
that  "the  Lords  cannot  now  pass  the  Bill  if  they  would, 
without  disgracing  their  party  in  the  House  of  Commons," 
and  Wharncliffe  said  that  "  the  Government  could  not  give 
up  the  appropriation  clause  in  the  Tithe  Bill  without  cover- 
ing themselves  with  disgrace."  In  my  opinion  the  disgrace 
is  not  in  making  concessions  which  reason  and  expediency 
demand,  and  which  are  indispensable  to  the  peace  and  tran- 
quillity of  the  country,  but  in  ever  having  pledged  them- 
selves to  measures  for  party  purposes,  or  to  accomplish 
particular  ends,  without  calculating  the  consequences  of 
such  pledges,  or  estimating  the  degree  of  power  that  they 
would  possess  of  giving  effect  to  the  principles  they  avowed. 
This  applies  more  strongly  a  great  deal  to  the  Whigs  about 
the  Tithe  Bill  than  to  the  Tories  about  the  Corporations  ;  but 
it  does  apply  to  both,  and  it  is  a  national  misfortune  when 
two  great  parties  so  commit  themselves  that  no  adjustment 
of  the  question  at  -issue  between  them  is  possible  without 
some  detriment  to  the  credit  and  character  of  both. 

March  18£A. — Three  weeks  and  nothing  written.  The 
dejection  of  the  Tories  at  the  division  on  the  Corporation 
Bill  has  been  since  relieved  by  that  on  the  Church-rates, 
which  they  consider  equivalent  to  a  victory  ;  and  so  it  is,  for 
the  probability  is  that  the  Bill  will  not  pass  the  House  of 
Commons.  The  debates  have  been  good  upon  both  these 
matters.  Just  before  the  question  came  on,  the  Bishops 
made  a  grand  flare-up  in  the  House  of  Lords.  The  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  (Howley),  with  as  much  venom  as  so 
mild  a  man  can  muster,  attacked  the  Bill.  Melbourne  replied 
with  some  asperity,  and  the  Bishop  of  London  (Blomfield)  re- 


1837.]  THE   CHURCH-RATE   BILL.  505 

torted  fiercely  upon  him.  The  Tories  lauded  and  the  Whigs 
abused  the  Bishops,  both  vehemently.  I  don't  admire  their 
conduct,  either  as  to  temper  or  discretion.  The  Church  had 
better  not  be  militant,  and  to  see  the  Bench  of  Bishops  in 
direct  and  angry  collision  with  the  King's  Prime  Minister  is 
a  sorry  sight. 

The  angry  debate  which  took  place  was  not  contemplated 
by  the  Bishops.  It  had  been  settled  that  the  Archbishop 
should  make  his  declaration  against  the  measure  in  the  name 
of  his  brethren,  which  he  did  in  a  speech  (for  him)  remark- 
ably good,  for  he  is  a  miserable  speaker  at  all  times.  Mel- 
bourne's severe  remarks  provoked  the  Bishop  of  London 
(Blomfield),  who  had  not  intended  to  speak,  and  he  said  to 
the  Archbishop,  "  I  must  answer  this,"  who  replied,  "  Do." 
His  abrupt  and  animated  exordium,  "  And  so,  my  Lords," 
was  very  much  admired. 

This  Church-rate  Bill,  however,  is  a  bad  Bill  ;  it  gives 
little  satisfaction  to  anybody  except  to  the  Dissenters,  who 
have  no  right  to  require  such  a  concession  to  what  they  ab- 
surdly call  their  scruples  of  conscience.  One  of  the  under- 
whippers  of  Government  dropped  the  truth  as  to  the  real 
cause  of  such  a  measure,  when  he  said  that,  "  if  they  had  pro- 
posed Althorp's  plan,  <hey  should  have  had  all  the  Dissenters 
against  them  at  the  next  elections."  The  question,  originally 
one  of  considerable  difficulty,  is  now  doubly  so,  and  its  solu- 
tion will  not  be  easy,  especially  by  this  Government ;  but 
nothing  can  prevent  its  being  settled.  It  is  strange  that  no 
experience  can  open  the  eyes  of  inveterate  Tories  and  High 
Churchmen,  and  that  successive  defeats  have  not  demon- 
strated to  them  the  futility  of  their  expectations  of  being 
able  to  resist  the  passing  of  measures  which  great  interests 
support,  and  which  are  congenial  to  public  opinion.  There 
is,  however,  something  discreditable  in  the  conduct  of  Gov- 
ernment, and  which  shows  the  compromising,  half-cunning, 
hand-to-mouth  way  in  which  they  are  compelled  to  scramble 
on.  Upon  the  ballot  the  Times  published  a  list  of  at  least 
twenty  members  of  the  Government  who  staid  away,  leaving 
the  Tories  to  fight  the  Radicals  and  make  the  majority,  and 
such  a  measure  as  this  Church-rate  Bill  is  utterly  inconsistent 
with  Lord  John  Russell's  declarations  last  year.  This  divis- 
ion has  again  revived  the  question  of  dissolution  and  change 
of  Government,  and  made  a  great  deal  of  speculation.  If  the 
Lords  dare  throw  out  the  Corporation  Bill,  the  Government 
44 


506  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM  IT.  [CHAP.  XXXII. 

must  go  out,  though   not  else  ;  but  it  is  next  to  impossible 
they  should  venture  on  this. 

March  31st. — So  I  thought  upon  the  18th  of  March,  but 
so  I  do  not  think  now.  Jn  the  first  place,  I  hear  from  those 
who  are  well  informed  that  the  Lords  have  made  up  their 
minds  to  throw  out  this  Bill.  Lord  John  Russell  has  made  up 
his  to  resign  if  they  do,  and  in  that  case  Peel  has  made  up  his 
to  come  in.  It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  the  great  body 
of  the  Whigs  are  at  all  prepared  to  go  out.  Some  doubt  the 
Lords  rejecting  the  Bill,  others  that  the  Tories  would  take 
office,  or  that  Melbourne  and  his  friends  would  so  certainly 
resign  it.  Lord  Spencer  wrote  to  John  Russell,  and  told  him 
that  if  the  Lords  did  throw  out  the  Bill,  he  thought  that  (be- 
ing still  supported  by  a  majority  of  the  Commons)  he  ought 
not  to  resign,  but  Lord  John  wrote  him  back  decisive  and  con- 
vincing reasons  why  his  retention  of  office  under  such  circum- 
stances would  be  impossible.  The  fact  is  that  there  is  a  great 
change  in  the  face  of  affairs.  The  small  majority  on  the 
Church-rate  Bill,  the  unpopularity  of  the  measure,  and  the 
discredit  which  attends  our  foreign  relations  (since  Evans's 
defeat  in  Spain  more  especially),  have  had  a  material  effect 
upon  the  moral  efficacy  of  the  Government.  It  is  now  known 
that  Government  have  abandoned  the  appropriation  clauses  in 
the  Tithe  Bill,  and  this  has  grievously  offended  many  of  their 
violent,  thick-and-thin  supporters,  more  especially  as  it  was 
the  particular  question  on  which  they  turned  Peel  out,  and 
the  grand  principle,  therefore,  on  which  the  Government  was 
bound  in  honor  and  consistency  to  stand.  The  Ministers  none 
of  them  possess  any  public  confidence  in  their  individual  or 
official  capacities ;  the  King  detests  them,  the  country  does 
not  care  for  them,  and  the  House  of  Commons  supports  them 
in  a  lukewarm  spirit.  If  they  do  resign  there  will  be  no  repe- 
tition of  the  scenes  of  their  former  expulsion  and  triumphant 
return  to  power.  The  same  enthusiasm  could  not  be  raised, 
nor  the  same  union  brought  about.  I  hear  men  in  office  talk 
of  Peel  going  on  without  a  dissolution,  and  the  most  inter- 
ested adherents  of  Government  (Tavistock,  for  example)  of  a 
fair  trial,  and  of  his  having  a  better  right  to  it  now  than  he 
had  on  the  former  occasion.  Peel's  undoubted  fitness  for 
office,  his  vast  superiority  to  all  the  other  public  men  of  the 
day,  will  be  more  readily  acknowledged,  and  I  doubt  very 
much  whether  he  would  experience  any  such  factious  and  un- 
compromising1 opposition  as  would  seriously  obstruct  the  march 


1837.]  THE   KING'S  ADDRESS   TO   LORD   AYLMER.  507 

of  his  Government,  particularly  if  its  composition  should  be 
tolerable,  and  his  measures  judicious  and  liberal.  It  is  very 
remarkable  that  when  he  wanted  to  take  in  Stanley  and 
Graham  formerly,  he  desired  them  more  particularly  because 
they  would  have  strengthened  his  hands  in  the  establishment 
of  liberal  principles  against  the  great  body  of  his  Tory  sup- 
porters, and  they  refused  upon  the  pretext  that  they  had  no 
security  for  his  being  liberal  enough ;  and  now,  when  of  course 
he  must  and  will  place  whatever  offices  they  please  at  their 
disposal,  so  far  from  being  of  the  same  assistance  to  him, 
they  only  bring  an  addition  of  bigotry  and  illiberality  which 
will  perpetually  cast  difficulties  and  embarrassments  in  his 
way.  It  is  a  curious  matter  for  speculation  how  he  will  go 
on  with  these  men,  how  his  coldness,  prudence,  and  reserve, 
will  suit  the  intemperate  and  often  injudicious  vivacity  of 
Stanley.  With  Graham  there  would  not  be  so  much  difficulty, 
and  his  principles  would  not  be  found  too  inflexible.  Nothing 
shocks  his  old  Whig  associates  more  than  the  contrast  be- 
tween his  present  conduct  and  opinions,  and  the  extreme 
violence  which  he  displayed  at  the  period  of  his  accession  to 
office  in  1831 ;  he  was  in  fact  the  most  ultra-Liberal  of  Lord 
Grey's  Cabinet,  and  now  he  is  little  better  than  a  Tory. 

The  King,  who  is  a  thorough  party  man,  will  be  overjoyed 
at  any  change ;  he  never  loses  an  opportunity  of  showing  his 
antipathy  to  his  confidential  servants.  The  other  day  at  the 
reception  of  the  Bath,  when  Lord  Aylmer  was  introduced,  he 
made  him  a  speech  to  which  he  gave  that  sort  of  dramatic 
effect  which  he  is  so  fond  of  doing.  Aylmer  had  been  recalled 
from  Canada  by  this  Government,  but  when  he  approached  the 
throne,  the  King  called  out  to  Lord  Minto  and  Lord  Palmerston 
(the  only  two  Ministers  who  are  Knights  of  the  Bath),  and 
made  them  come  up,  and  stand  one  on  each  side  of  Aylmer, 
that  they  might  not  lose  a  word  of  his  oration,  and  then  he 
began.  He  told  them  that  he  wished  to  take  that,  the  most 
public  opportunity  he  could  find,  of  telling  him  that  he 
.approved  most  entirely  of  his  conduct  in  Canada,  that  he  had 
acted  like  a  true  and  loyal  subject  toward  a  set  of  traitors 
and  conspirators,  and  behaved  as  it  became  a  British  officer 
to  do  under  such  circumstances.  I  forget  the  exact  expres- 
sions, but  it  was  to  this  effect,  to  the  unspeakable  satisfaction 
of  Aylmer,  and  to  inflict  all  the  mortification  he  could  upon 
the  Ministers  whom  he  had  lugged  up  to  witness  this  ebul- 
lition. 


508  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXXII. 

Another  circumstance  will  facilitate  the  change  oT  Min- 
istry, which  is,  that  the  question  is  not  argued  as  if  it  wore 
a  struggle  for  authority  between  the  Lords  and  the  Commons, 
for  the  notion  of  such  a  struggle  would  be  well  calculated  to 
excite  a  constitutional  jealousy.  The  Lords,  however,  pretend 
that  their  support  of  the  Protestant  interest  is  not  only  in 
itself  constitutional,  but  more  in  accordance  with  the  senti- 
ments of 'the  nation  than  the  measures  of  the  Government  are. 
The  two  parties  are  pretty  evenly  balanced,  but  the  strength 
of  the  Opposition  lies  in  the  Lords,  and  it  is  altogether  a 
question  of  party  tactics,  and  not  of  constitutional  principle. 
Of  all  men,  Peel  is  the  last  to  favor  any  attempt  to  question 
the  virtual  supremacy  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  if  he 
becomes  Minister,  and  has  a  majority  (as  of  course  he  must, 
to  stay  in),  the  high  'tide  of  the  Lords  will  begin  to  ebb,  and 
every  thing  will  be  seen  to  settle  down  into  the  usual  practice. 
If  a  victory  is  achieved,  it  will  not  be  that  of  the  Lords  over 
the  Commons,  but  of  the  Conservatives  over  the  Whigs  and 
Radicals. 

The  fierce  dispute  between  Sydney  Smith  and  the  Bishop 
of  London,  which  gave  birth  to  his  pamphlet,1  has  terminated 
in  an  interview  sought  by  Sydney  and  accorded  by  the  Bishop, 
when  they  are  said  to  have  discussed  the  matter  in  dispute 
with  temper  and  candor,  and  to  have  parted  amicably.  It 
will  probably  prevent  the  appearance  of  Sydney's  second 
pamphlet,  which  was  ready.  He  speaks  in  terms  of  great 
admiration  of  the  capacity  of  the  Bishop,  and  owned  that  he 
had  convinced  him  upon  some  of  the  points  which  they  had 
to  discuss.  I  did  not  hear  what  the  Bishop  said  of  the 
Prebend. 

Among  the  many  old  people  who  have  been  cut  off  by  this 
severe  weather,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  is  Mrs.  Fitzher- 
bert,  who  died  at  Brighton  at  above  eighty  years  of  age.  She 
was  not  a  clever  woman,  but  of  a  very  noble  spirit,  disinter- 
ested, generous,  honest,  and  affectionate,  greatly  beloved  by 
her  friends  and  relations,  popular  in  the  world,  and  treated 
with  uniform  distinction  and  respect  by  the  Royal  Family. 
The  late  King,  who  was  a  despicable  creature,  grudged  her 
the  allowance  he  was  bound  to  make  her,  and  he  was  always 
afraid  lest  she  should  make  use  of  some  of  the  documents  in 
her  possession  to  annoy  or  injure  him.  This  mean  and  selfish 

1  [The  -well-known  letter  of  Sydney  Smith  to  Archdeacon  Singleton  in  de- 
fense of  Deans  and  Chapters.] 


1837.]  DEATH   OF   MRS.   FITZHERBERT.  509 

apprehension  led  him  to  make  various  efforts  to  obtain  pos- 
session of  those  the  appearance  of  which  he  most  dreaded, 
and,  among  others,  one  remarkable  attempt  was  made  by  Sir 
William  Knighton  some  years  ago.  Although  a  stranger  to 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  he  called  one  day  at  her  house,  when  she 
was  ill  in  bed,  insisted  upon  seeing  her,  and  forced  his  wsy 
into  her  bedroom.  She  contrived  (I  forget  how)  to  get  rid  of 
him  without  his  getting  any  thing  out  of  her,  but  this  domi- 
ciliary visit  determined  her  to  make  a  final  disposition  of  all 
the  papers  she  possessed,  that  in  the  event  of  her  death  no 
advantage  might  be  taken  of  them  either  against  her  own 
memory  or  the  interests  of  any  other  person.  She  accord- 
ingly selected  those  papers  which  she  resolved  to  preserve, 
and  which  are  supposed  to  be  the  documents  and  correspond- 
ence relating  to  her  marriage  with  George  IV.,  and  made  a 
packet  of  them  which  was  deposited  at  her  banker's,  and  all 
other  letters  and  papers  she  condemned  to  the  flames.  For 
this  purpose  she  sent  for  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Lord 
Albemarle,  told  them  her  determination,  and  in  their  presence 
had  these  papers  burnt  ;  she  assured  them  that  every  thing 
was  destroyed,  and  if  after  her  death  any  pretended  letters 
or  documents  were  produced,  they  might  give  the  most 
authoritative  contradiction  to  their  authenticity. 

May  ~L3th. — I  have  been  six  weeks  without  writing  a  line, 
and,  though  no  great  events  have  occurred,  the  aspect  of 
affairs  has  been  continually  shifting  and  changing.  About  a 
month  ago  it  was  supposed  the  fall  of  the  Government  was  at 
hand,  and,  when  the  crisis  was  over,  it  was  found  that  they 
had  really  been  in  danger.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  called  a 
meeting  at  Apsley  House  just  before  the  Corporation  Bill 
came  on  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  a  great  point  was  made 
of  the  resolution  of  the  Tory  Lords  being  kept  secret  till  the 
last  moment.  The  mystery  excited  some  curiosity,  but,  after 
all,  it  only  turned  out  to  be  what  everybody  had  long  before 
talked  about,  the  postponement  of  the  Committee.  This  was 
done  by  the  Duke  in  a  very  bad  speech,  so  bad  that  Fitz- 
gerald and  others  were  obliged  to  try  and  do  away  its  effect 
by  making  out  that  he  did  not  mean  what  he  said.  On  the 
division,  the  Government  had  greater  numbers  than  usual.  It 
then  remained  to  be  seen  what  Lord  John  Russell  would  do, 
and  it  was  reported  that  he  meant  to  retaliate  by  postponing 
the  Tithe  Bill,  but  he  did  no  such  thing.  He  came  do\vn  and 
declared  that  they  would  regularly  go  on  with  all  their  bills, 


510  REIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXXII 

and  moreover,  that,  while  they  retained  the  confidence  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  they  would  not  resign ;  so,  again,  it  seems 
likely  that  the  compromise  originally  anticipated  will  take 
place  at  last,  and  there  will  be  no  change.  This  declaration 
of  Lord  John's  is  at  variance  with  his  former  resolution,  and 
so  T  told  Tavistock  ifc  would  appear  to  be.  He  admitted  that 
it  would,  but  said  that  John  claimed  for  himself  to  judge  of 
the  fit  moment  for  his  resignation ;  that,  whenever  he  was 
satisfied  that  he  had  no  reasonable  prospect  of  carrying  his 
measures,  he  should  retire,  but  not  till  then ;  and  that  one 
defeat  ought  not  to  make  him  throw  up  the  game.  However, 
he  owned  that  this  qualification  ought  to  have  formed  part  of 
his  original  declaration,  in  order  to  obviate  all  misrepresen- 
tation. 

During  the  last  week  the  Westminster  election  1  has  ab- 
sorbed every  thing  else.  Though  the  Government  were  by 
way  of  taking  no  part,  all  Brookes's  moved  heaven  and  earth 
for  Leader,  and,  until  the  day  of  nomination,  they  were  con- 
fident of  his  success.  Bets  were  two  to  one  in  his  favor,  and 
a  great  deal  was  lost  and  won.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Tories 
worked  hard  for  Burdett.  He  appeared  on  the  hustings  at  the 
nomination,  and  was  received  quite  as  well  as  his  opponent, 
and  the  show  of  hands  was  in  his  favor.  This  reduced  the 
betting  to  even,  but  nobody  was  prepared  for  the  great  major- 
ity by  which  Burdett  won.  It  was  certainly  a  great  triumph 
to  the  Conservative  cause,  and  a  great  disappointment  to  the 
violent  Whigs,  and  still  more  to  the  Radicals.  The  Govern- 
ment affect  to  make  light  of  it.  Melbourne  is  probably  sin- 
cere when  he  says  he  is  very  glad  of  it,  and  for  this  reason, 
"  that  the  Radicals  are  very  difficult  to  manage  as  it  is,  and, 
if  they  had  carried  this  election,  there  would  be  no  doing  any 
thing  with  them."  A  great  many  people  on  both  sides  would 
not  vote.  I  would  not,  for  one.  I  hate  Leader's  politics,  and 
don't  like  Burdett's ;  nobody  can  tell  what  he  is,  for  his  an- 
swers and  explanations  are  of  a  shuffling,  ambiguous  charac- 
ter, and  he  disgusted  me  by  throwing  over  the  new  Poor  Law, 
which  was  a  base  compliance.  However,  though  I  would  not 
vote,  I  was  rather  glad  he  came  in,  and  somewhat  like  Lord 

1  [A  contested  election  in  Westminster  "between  Mr.  Leader  (Badical)  and 
Sir  .Francis  Burdett  (Conservative).  Burdett  was  returned  by  a  majority  of 
515.  It  was  a  chivalrous  contest.  Burdett  had  resigned  his'  seat  voluntarily 
to  test  the  feeling  of  his  constituents,  and  Leader  resigned  a  seat  for  Bridge*- 
water  solely  to  meet  Burdett  in  Westminster.] 


1837.]  ILLNESS  OF  THE   KING.  511 

Grey,  who  said,  last  night,  "  he  was  glad  at  Leader's  defeat, 
and  sorry  for  Burdett's  success." 

May  23d. — There  was  great  triumph  among  the  Conser- 
vatives at  Burdett's  success,  raised  to  a  higher  pitch  by  that 
of  Broad  wood  at  Bridgewater,  which  makes  the  whole  "thing 
very  complete,  Leader  having  fallen  between  the  two  stools, 
and  now  they  expect  to  get  Glasgow;  if  they  succeed  in 
which,  there  will  be  no  bounds  to  their  exultation.  Then 
it  is  suspected  that  there  have  been  difficulties  and  divisions 
in  the  Cabinet.  There  was  a  meeting  at  Lord  Grey's  of  Min- 
isters and  Ministerial  adherents,  it  was  supposed  for  the  pur- 
pose of  his  patching  up  matters,  but  I  know  nothing  of  what 
occurred.  The  Duke  of  Wellington,  too,  had  an  audience  of 
the  King  on  Wednesday  last,  and  all  these  things  set  sur- 
mises afloat.  At  another  time  I  should  probably  have  be- 
stirred myself  and  found  out  what  all  this  meant ;  but  1  have 
been  so  occupied  and  absorbed  with  the  Derby,  that  I  could 
think  of  nothing  else. 

The  King  prayed  that  he  might  live  till  the  Princess 
Victoria  was  of  age,  and  he  was  very  nearly  dying  just  as 
the  event  arrived.  He  is  better,  but  supposed  to  be  in  a  very 
precarious  state.  There  has  been  a  fresh  squabble  between 
Windsor  and  Kensington  about  a  proposed  allowance  to  the 
Princess. 

June  2d. — The  King  has  been  desperately  ill,  his  pulse 
down  at  thirty ;  they  think  he  will  now  get  over  it  for  this 
time.  His  recovery  will  not  have  been  accelerated  by  the 
Duchess  of  Kent's  answer  to  the  City  of  London's  address, 
in  which  she  went  into  the  history  of  her  life,  and  talked  of 
her  "friendless  state"  on  arriving  in  this  country,  the  gist  of 
it  being  that,  having  been  abandoned  or  neglected  by  the 
Royal  Family,  she  had  thrown  herself  on  the  country. 

June  llm. — At  Buckhurst  last  week  for  Ascot;  went  on 
Monday  and  returned  on  Friday.  On  Tuesday  the  Queen 
came  to  the  course,  but  only  staid  an  hour.  They  had  an 
immense  party  at  the  Castle  notwithstanding  the  King's 
illness.  I  met  Adolphus  Fitzclarence  at  the  course,  who  gave 
me  an  account  of  the  King's  state,  which  was  bad  enough, 
though  not  for  the  moment  alarming ;  no  disease,  but  exces- 
sive weakness  without  power  of  rallying.  He  also  gave  me 
an  account  of  the  late  Kensington  quarrel.  The  King  wrote 
a  letter  to  the  Princess  offering  her  £10,000  a  year  (not  out 
of  his  privy  purse),  which  he  proposed  should  be  at  her  own 


512  KEIGN   OF   WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXXII. 

disposal  and  independent  of  her  mother.  He  sent  this  letter 
by  Lord  Conyngham  with  orders  to  deliver  it  into  the  Prin- 
cess's own  hands.  Conjngharn  accordingly  \vent  to  Kensing- 
ton (where  Conroy  received  him)  and  asked  to  be  admitted  to 
the  Princess.  Conroy  asked  by  what  authority.  He  said  by 
his  Majesty's  orders.  Conroy  went  away,  and  shortly  after 
Conyngham  was  ushered  into  the  presence  of  the  Duchess 
and  Princess,  when  he  said  that  he  had  waited  on  her  Royal 
Highness  by  the  King's  commands  to  present  to  her  a  letter 
with  which  he  had  been  charged  by  his  Majesty.  The 
Duchess  put  out  her  hand  to  take  it,  when  he  said  he  begged 
her  Royal  Highness's  pardon,  but  he  was  expressly  com- 
manded by  the  King  to  deliver  the  letter  into  the  Princess's 
own  hands.  Her  mother  then  drew  back  and  the  Princess 
took  the  letter,  when  Conyngham  made  his  bow  and  retired. 
Victoria  wrote  to  the  King,  thanking  him  and  accepting  his 
offer.  He  then  sent  to  say  that  it  was  his  wish  to  name  the 
person  who  should  receive  this  money  for  her,  and  he  pro- 
posed to  name  Stephenson.  Then  began  the  dispute.  The 
Duchess  of  Kent  objected  to  the  arrangement,  and  she  put 
forth  her  claim,  which  was  that  she  should  have  £6,000  of  the 
money  and  the  Princess  £4,000.  How  the  matter  had  ended 
Adolphus  did  not  know  when  I  saw  him.  [It  never  was 
settled.] 

The  Duchess  of  Northumberland  had  been  to  Windsor  and 
resigned  her  office  of  governess  a  few  days  before. 

On  Wednesday  it  was  announced  for  the  first  time  that 
the  King  was  alarmingly  ill,  on  Thursday  the  account  was  no 
better,  and  in  the  course  of  Wednesday  and  Thursday  his 
immediate  dissolution  appeared  so  probable  that  I  concerted 
with  Errol  that  I  should  send  to  the  Castle  at  nine  o'clock 
on  Thursday  evening  for  the  last  report,  that  I  might  know 
whether  to  go  to  London  directly  or  not.  On  Wednesday 
the  physicians  wanted  to  issue  a  bulletin,  but  the  King  would 
not  hear  of  it.  He  said  as  long  as  he  was  able  to  transact 
public  business  he  would  not  have  the  public  alarmed  on  his 
account ;  but  on  Friday,  nevertheless,  the  first  bulletin  was 
issued. 

It  is  in  this  state  of  things,  with  the  prospect  of  a  new 
reign  and  a  dissolution,  and  in  complete  uncertainty  of  the 
direction  which  affairs  would  take  under  a  new  influence, 
when  it  is  peculiarly  desirable  that  moderate  and  healing 
counsels  should  prevail,  that  Lyndhurst  comes  down  to  the 


1837.]  ILLNESS   OF  THE   KING.  513 

House  of  Lords  and  fires  off  one  of  his  violent  speeches,  and 
at  his  bidding  the  Irish  Municipal  Corporation  Bill  has  been 
again  postponed.  All  this  is  very  disgusting  to  me,  and  I 
am  at  a  loss  to  comprehend  why  such  men  as  the  Duke  and 
Peel  lend  themselves  to  such  courses.  In  the  House  of 
Commons,  John  Russell  took  a  very  different  line,  for  he 
made  a  strong  Conservative  speech  in  answer  to  an  omnium 
gatherum  Radical  tirade  of  Roebuck's  ;  just  such  a  speech  as 
a  Minister  ought  to  make.  Denman  was  persuaded  to  give 
up  his  design  of  bringing  before  the  House  of  Lords  the 
question  of  privilege,  on  which  he  is  at  issue  with  the  House 
of  Commons,  and  there  seems  luckily  a  disposition  to  deal 
with  it  calmly  ;  in  fact,  it  is  no  party  question.  The  Judges 
are  all  with  their  colleagues,  but  Peel  has  taken  a  strong 
part  with  the  House  of  Commons,  and  made  a  very  good 
speech  upon  it  the  other  night. 

I  met  Melbourne  in  the  Park,  who  told  me  he  thought 
the  King  would  not  recover.  Lord  Harrowby  was  very  much 
astonished  as  well  as  annoyed  at  Lyndhurst's  speech  the 
other  night,  it  having  been  previously  agreed  upon  that  all 
violence  and  every  thing  offensive  should  be  avoided.  They 
had  resolved  to  postpone  the  Committee  on  the  Bill  as  before, 
but  it  was  to  have  been  done  in  the  most  conciliatory  way, 
and  they  were  not  prepared  for  this  outbreak  of  Lyndhurst's. 

June  13th. — Bad  accounts  of  the  King  yesterday.  Mel- 
bourne desired  I  would  get  every  thing  ready  quietly  for  a 
Council.  He  had  been  busily  occupied  in  examining  the 
precedents,  in  order  to  conduct  the  first  ceremonies  properly, 
and  the  first  questions  have  been  whether  the  Duchess  of 
Kent  could  come  into  Council  with  her  daughter,  and  whether 
the  Duke  of  Cumberland  (King  of  Hanover,  as  he  will  be) 
should  be  summoned  to  it. 

June  16th. — On  Wednesday  the  King  was  desperately 
bad,  yesterday  he  was  better,  but  not  so  as  to  afford  any 
hope,  though  Chambers  says  his  recovery  is  not  impossible. 
Although  the  bulletins  tell  so  little,  everybody  is  now  aware 
of  his  Majesty's  state.  He  dictates  these  reports  himself, 
and  will  not  allow  more  to  be  said  ;  he  continues  to  do 
business,  and  his  orders  are  taken  as  usual,  so  he  is  resolved 
to  die  with  harness  on  his  back.  Yesterday  Lord  Lansdowne 
sent  for  me  to  beg  in  the  first  place  that  every  thing  might 
be  ready,  and  in  the  next  to  say  they  were  perplexed  to 
know  what  steps,  if  any,  they  ought  to  take  to  ascertain 


514  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXXIL 

whether  the  Queen  is  with  child,  and  to  beg  me  to  search 
in  our  books  if  any  precedent  could  be  found  at  the  accession 
of  James  II.  But  they  had  forgotten  that  the  case  had  been 
provided  for  in  the  Regency  Bill,  and  that  in  the  event  of 
the  King's  death  without  children,  the  Queen  is  to  be  pro- 
claimed, but  the  oath  of  allegiance  taken  with  a  saving  of 
the  rights  of  any  posthumous  child  to  King  William.  They 
ought  to  have  known  this,  but  it  is  odd  enough  that  there  is 
nobody  in  office  who  has  any  personal  knowledge  of  the 
usual  forms  at  the  first  Council,  for  not  one  of  these  Ministers 
was  in  office  at  the  accession  of  William  IV.  My  colleague, 
Buller,  who  was  present  as  Clerk  of  the  Council,  is  dead,  and 
I  was  abroad. 

In  the  morning  I  met  Sir  Robert  Peel  in  the  Park,  and 
talked  with  him  about  the  beginning  of  the  new  reign.  He 
said  that  it  was  very  desirable  that  the  young  Queen  should 
appear  as  much  as  possible  emancipated  from  all  restraint, 
and  exhibit  a  capacity  for  the  discharge  of  her  high  functions  ; 
that  the  most  probable  as  well  as  the  most  expedient  course 
she  could  adopt,  would  be  to  rely  entirely  upon  the  advice  of 
Melbourne,  and  she  might  with  great  propriety  say  that  she 
thought  it  incumbent  on  her  to  follow  the  example  which  had 
been  set  by  her  two  uncles,  her  predecessors,  William  IV. 
having  retained  in  office  the  Ministers  of  his  brother,  and 
George  IV.,  although  his  political  predilections  were  known  to 
lean  another  way,  having  also  declined  to  dismiss  the  Govern- 
ment of  his  father.  Peel  said  that  he  concluded  King  Leopold 
would  be  her  great  adviser.  If  Leopold  is  prudent,  however, 
he  will  not  hurry  over  here  at  the  very  first  moment,  which 
would  look  like  an  impatience  to  establish  his  influence,  and 
if  he  does,  the  first  result  will  be  every  sort  of  jealousy  and 
discord  between  him  and  the  Duchess  of  Kent.  The  elements 
of  intrigue  do  not  seem  wanting  in  this  embryo  Court.  Be- 
sides the  Duchess  of  Kent  and  Leopold,  and  Conroy  of  course, 
Caradoc '  is  suspected  of  a  design  and  an  expectation  to  be- 
come a  personage  ;  and  Lord  Durham  is  on  his  way  home, 
and  his  return  is  regarded  with  no  little  curiosity,  because  he 
may  endeavor  to  play  a  great  political  part,  and  materially  to 
influence  the  opinions,  or  at  least  the  councils,  of  the  Queen. 
What  renders  speculation  so  easy,  and  events  uncertain,  is 
the  absolute  ignorance  of  everybody,  without  exception,  of 
the  character,  disposition,  and  capacity  of  the  Princess.  She 
1  [Colonel  Caradoc,  afterward  Lord  Howden  ;  died  tu  1873.] 


1887.]  PRAYERS  ORDERED   FOR  THE   KING.  535 

has  been  kept  in  such  jealous  seclusion  by  her  mother  (never 
having  slept  out  of  her  bedroom,  nor  been  alone  with  anybody 
but  herself  and  the  Baroness  Lehzen),  that  not  one  of  her  ac- 
quaintance, none  of  the  attendants  at  Kensington,  not  even 
the  Duchess  of  Northumberland,  her  governess,  have  any  ideu 
what  she  is,  or  what  she  promises  to  be.  It  is  therefore  no 
difficult  matter  to  form  and  utter  conjectures  which  nobody 
can  contradict  or  gainsay  but  by  other  conjectures  equally  un- 
certain and  fallacious.  The  Tories  are  in  great  consternation 
at  the  King's  approaching  death,  from  the  advantage  which 
they  foresee  their  opponents  must  derive  from  it  as  far  as.  the 
extension  of  their  term  of  power  is  concerned,  and  they  prog- 
nosticate, according  to  their  custom,  all  sorts  of  dismal  conse- 
quences, none  of  which,  of  course,  will  come  to  pass.  Nothing 
will  happen,  because,  in  this  country,  nothing  ever  does.  The 
Whigs,  to  do  them  justice,  behave  with  great  decency  ;  what- 
ever they  may  really  feel,  they  express  a  very  proper  concern, 
and  I  have  no  doubt  Melbourne  really  feels  the  concern  he  ex- 
presses. The  public  in  general  don't  seem  to  care  much,  and 
only  wonder  what  will  happen. 

June  lltth. — Yesterday  the  King  was  better,  so  as  to  pro- 
mise a  prolongation  of  his  existence,  though  not  his  recovery. 
An  intimation  came  from  Windsor,  that  it  was  desired  prayers 
should  be  offered  up  in  the  Churches  for  him ;  so  the  Privy 
Council  assembled  to  order  this,  but  on  assembling  the  Bishop 
of  London  objected  to  the  form  which  had  been  used  upon 
the  last  and  other  occasions  (an  order  made  by  the  Lords  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  to  prepare  a  form  of  praj-er), 
asserting  that  the  Lords  had  no  power  to  make  such  an  order, 
and  it  was  even  doubted  by  lawyers  whether  the  King  him- 
self had  power  to  order  alterations  in  the  Liturgy,  or  the  use 
of  the  particular  prayers  ;  and  admitting  that  he  had,  it  was 
in  virtue  of  his  prerogative,  and  as  Head  of  the  Church,  but 
that  the  Lords  of  the  Council  had  no  power  whatever  of  the 
kind.  They  admitted  that  he  was  correct  in  this  view  of  the 
case,  and  consequently,  instead  of  an  order  to  the  Archbishop, 
his  Majesty's  pleasure  that  prayers  should  be  offered  up  was 
conveyed  to  the  Council,  and  a  communication  to  that  effect 
was  directed  to  be  made  to  the  Archbishop.  The  King's 
pleasure  being  thus  conveyed,  it  is  his  duty  to  obey,  and  the 
Bishops  have  power  to  direct  their  clergy  to  pray  for  the 
King.  The  Bishop  of  London  would  have  preferred  that  u 
prayer  for  his  recovery  as  for  a  sick  person,  but  mentioning 


516  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM   IV.  [CHAP.  XXXIL 

him  by  name,  should  have  been  adopted,  but  the  Archbishop 
was  prepared  with  his  form  of  prayer,  and  it  was  directed  to 
be  used. 

June  18th. — The  King  lingers  on  ;  yesterday  he  sent  for  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  to  administer  the  Sacrament  to  him. 

An  attack  (but  a  feeble  one)  was  made  upon  Palmerston 
the  other  night,  about  Sir  Charles  Vaughan's  appointment  to 
relieve  Lord  Ponsonby  at  Constantinople,  to  which  he  made, 
as  usual,  a  feeble  and  inefficient  answer,  but  the  real  story  did 
not  come  out.  The  whole  history  of  Lord  Ponsonby  is  a  re- 
markable example  of  what  a  man  in  favor  or  with  powerful 
protection  may  do  with  impunity,  and  it  is  the  more  striking 
because  Palmerston  is  the  most  imperious  of  official  despots, 
and  yet  has  invariably  truckled  to  Lord  Grey's  brother-in-law. 
When  Ponsonby  was  appointed  Ambassador  at  Constantinople, 
the  affairs  of  the  East  were  in  a  most  critical  state,  notwith- 
standing which  nothing  would  induce  him  to  repair  to  his 
post,  and  he  loitered  away  several  months  at  Naples,  while 
Russia  was  maturing  her  designs  upon  Turkey,  and  when  the 
presence  of  an  English  Ambassador  was  of  vital  importance. 
This  was  overlooked,  because  to  Lord  Grey's  brother-in-law 
every  thing  was  permitted.  The  appointment  of  Mr.  Urquhart 
as  Secretary  of  the  Embassy  at  Constantinople  greatly  dis- 
pleased Lord  Ponsonby,  who  resolved  to  hold  no  communica- 
tion with  him,  and  accordingly  the  Chancellerie  at  Constanti- 
nople has  presented  the  amusing  spectacle  of  an  Ambassador 
and  Secretary  of  Embassy  who  do  not  speak  to  each  other, 
and  the  latter  of  whom  has  had  no  functions  whatever  to  dis- 
charge. A  short  time  ago  Lord  Ponsonby  applied  for  leave 
of  absence,  which  was  given  to  him,  and  the  Government  here 
hoped  that  when  he  came  home  he  would  not  think  of  return- 
ing, and  secretly  resolved  that  if  they  could  help  it,  he  should 
not.  But  as  Mr.  Urquhart  ha,d  been  placed  in  this  strange 
position,  and  besides,  since  his  appointment,  they  had  found 
reason  to  doubt  whether  he  was  altogether  fit  for  such  a  trust, 
it  was  impossible  to  leave  him  at  Constantinople  as  chargb 
d'affaires  during  his  chief's  absence,  so  they  got  Sir  Charles 
Vaughan  to  go  out  on  what  was  called  a  special  mission, 
though  there  was  nothing  more  in  it  than  to  meet  this  diffi- 
culty. Sir  Charles  was  directed  to  proceed  to  Malta,  and 
.  from  thence  to  send  a  steamer  to  Constantinople,  which  was 
to  announce  his  arrival  and  bring  back  Lord  Ponsonby. 
Sir  Charles,  accordingly,  sent  his  Secretary  of  Embassy  to 


1SS7.]  DEATH  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  517 

announce  him,  who,  when  he  arrived  off  Constantinople,  was 
met  by  an  absolute  prohibition  from  Ponsonby  to  land  at  all, 
and  a  flat  refusal  on  his  part  to  stir.  The  Secretary  had 
nothing  to  do  but  to  return  to  his  principal  and  report  his 
reception,  and  he  in  his  turn  had  nothing  to  do  but  report  his 
ridiculous  position  to  his  employers  at  home,  and  await  their 
orders.  The  result  has  been  that  Sir  Charles  is  ordered  home, 
and  Lord  Ponsonby  remains,  so  that  Palmerston  has  knocked 
under.  Ponsonby  has  carried  his  point,  and  Vaughan  has  had 
a  giro  to  Malta  and  back,  for  which  the  public  has  to  pay. 

June  19th. — Yesterday  the  King  was  sinking  fast;  the 
Sacrament  was  administered  to  him  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury.  He  said,  "  This  is  the  18th  of  June ;  I  should 
like  to  live  to  see  the  sun  of  Waterloo  set."  Last  night  [  met 
the  Duke,  and  dined  at  the  Duchess  of  Cannizzaro's,  who  after 
dinner  crowned  him  with  a  crown  of  laurel  (in  joke  of  course), 
when  they  all  stood  up  and  drank  his  health,  and  at  night 
they  sang  a  hymn  in  honor  of  the  day.  He  asked  me  whether 
Melbourne  had  had  any  communication  with  the  Princess  Vic- 
toria. I  said  I  did  not  know,  but  thought  not.  He  said,  "He 
ought.  I  was  in  constant  communication  with  the  present 
King  for  a  month  before  George  IV.  died.  George  IV.  was 
for  a  month  quite  as  bad  as  this  King,  and  I  sent  the  Duke 
of  Clarence  bulletins  every  day,  and  besides  wrote  to  him  the 
private  accounts  I  received,  and,  what  is  very  odd,  I  had  a 
quarrel  with  him  in  the  course  of  this.  He  constantly  wrote 
to  me,  and  in  one  of  his  letters  he  told  me  he  meant  to  make 
me  his  Minister.  I  felt  this  was  a  very  awkward  subject  for 
me  to  enter  upon,  and  that  I  could  not,  being  the  Minister  of 
the  King,  with  any  propriety  treat  with  his  successor,  so  I 
resolved  to  take  no  notice  whatever  of  this  part  of  his  letter, 
and  I  did  not.  He  was  very  indignant  at  this,  and  com- 
plained to  his  friends  (to  Lord  Cassilis,  for  instance)  that  I 
had  behaved  very  rudely  to  him.  When  I  met  him — for  I 
met  him  constantly  at  Windsor,  and  in  the  King's  room — he 
was  very  cold  in  his  manner,  but  I  took  no  notice,  and  went 
on  as  before." 

June  2lst. — The  King  died  at  twenty  minutes  after  two 
yesterday  morning,  and  the  young  Queen  met  the  Council 
at  Kensington  Palace  at  eleven.  Never  was  any  thing  like 
the  first  impression  she  produced,  or  the  chorus  of  praise 
and  admiration  which  is  raised  about  her  manner  and  be- 
havior, and  certainly  not  without  justice.  It  was  very  ex- 


518  REIGN  OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXXII. 

traordinary,  and  something  far  beyond  what  was  looked  for. 
Her  extreme  youth  and  inexperience,  and  the  ignorance  of 
the  world  concerning  her,  naturally  excited  intense  curiosity 
to  see  how  she  would  act  on  this  trying  occasion,  and  there 
was  a  considerable  assemblage  at  the  Palace,  notwithstanding- 
the  short  notice  which  was  given.  The  first  thing  to  be 
done  was  to  teach  her  her  lesson,  which  for  this  purpose 
Melbourne  had  himself  to  learn.  I  gave  him  the  Council 
papers,  and  explained  all  that  was  to  be  done,  and  he  went 
and  explained  all  this  to  her.  He  asked  her  if  she  would 
enter  the  room  accompanied  by  the  Great  Officers  of  State, 
but  she  said  she  would  come  in  alone.  When  the  Lords  were 
assembled  the  Lord  President  informed  them  of  the  King's 
death,  and  suggested,  as  they  were  so  numerous,  that  a  few 
of  them  should  repair  to  the  presence  of  the  Queen  and  in- 
form her  of  the  event,  and  that  their  Lordships  were  assembled 
in  consequence;  and  accordingly  the  two  Royal  Dukes,  the 
tAvo  Archbishops,  the  Chancellor,  and  Melbourne,  went  with 
him.  The  Queen  received  them  in  the  adjoining  room  alone. 
As  soon  as  they  had  returned  the  proclamation  was  read  and 
the  usual  order  passed,  when  the  doors  were  thrown  open  and 
the  Queen  entered,  accompanied  by  her  two  uncles,  who  ad- 
vanced to  meet  her.  She  bowed  to  the  Lords,  took  her  seat, 
and  then  read  her  speech  in  a  clear,  distinct,  and  audible  voice, 
and  without  any  appearance  of  fear  or  embarrassment.  She 
was  quite  plainly  dressed,  and  in  mourning.  After  she  had 
read  her  speech  and  taken  and  signed  the  oath  for  the  security 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  the  Privy  Councilors  were  sworn, 
the  two  Royal  Dukes  1  first,  by  themselves ;  and  as  these  two 
old  men,  her  uncles,  knelt  before  her,  swearing  allegiance  and 
kissing  her  hand,  I  saw  her  blush  up  to  the  eyes,  as  if  she  felt 
the  contrast  between  their  civil  and  their  natural  relations, 
and  this  was  the  only  sign  of  emotion  which  she  evinced.  Her 
manner  to  them  was  very  graceful  and  engaging;  she  kissed 
them  both,  and  rose  from  her  chair  and  moved  toward  the 
Duke  of  Sussex,  who  was  farthest  from  her  and  too  infirm  to 
reach  her.  She  seemed  rather  bewildered  at  the  multitude  of 
men  who  were  sworn,  and  who  came  one  after  another  to  kiss 
her  hand,  but  she  did  not  speak  to  anybody,  nor  did  she  make 
the  slightest  difference  in  her  manner,  or  show  any  in  her 
countenance,  to  any  individual  of  any  rank,  station,  or  party. 

1  The  Dukes  of  Cumberland  and  Sussex.    The  Duke  of  Cambridge  was  in 
Hanover; 


1837.]  QUEEN  VICTORIA'S  FIRST  COUNCIL.  519 

I  particularly  watched  her  when  Melbourne  and  the  Ministers 
and  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Peel  approached  her.  She 
went  through  the  wjiole  ceremony,  occasionally  looking  at 
Melbourne  for  instruction  when  she  had  any  doubt  what  to  do, 
which  hardly  ever  occurred,  and  with  perfect  calmness  and 
self-possession,  but  at  the  same  time  with  a  graceful  modesty 
and  propriety  particularly  interesting  and  ingratiating.  When 
the  business  was  done  she  retired  as  she  had  entered,  and  I 
could  see  that  nobody  was  in  the  adjoining  room.  Lord  Lans- 
downe  insisted  upon  being  declared  President  of  the  Council 
(and  I  was  obliged  to  write  a  declaration  for  him  to  read  to 
that  effect),  though  it  was  not  usual.  The  speech  was  ad- 
mired, except  by  Brougham,  who  appeared  in  a  considerable 
state  of  excitement.  He  said  to  Peel  (whom  he  was  standing 
near,  and  with  whom  he  is  not  in  the  habit  of  communicating), 
''^.melioration,  that  is  not  English;  you  might  perhaps  say 
w^lioration,  but  improvement  is  the  proper  word."  "Oh," 
said  Peel,  "I  see  no  harm  in  the  word;  it  is  generally  used." 
"  You  object,"  said  Brougham,  "  to  the  sentiment,  I  object  to 
the  grammar."  "  No,"  said  Peel,  "  I  don't  object  to  the  sen- 
timent." "  Well,  then,  she  pledges  herself  to  the  policy  of 
our  Government,"  said  Brougham.  Peel  told  me  this,  which 
passed  in  the  room  and  near  to  the  Queen.  He  likewise  said 
how  amazed  he  was  at  her  manner  and  behavior,  at  her  appar- 
ent deep  sense  of  her  situation,  her  modesty,  and  at  the  same 
time  her  firmness.  She  appeared,  in  fact,  to  be  awed,  but  not 
daunted,  and  afterward  the  Duke  of  Wellington  told  me  the 
flame  thing,  and  added  that  if  she  had  been  his  own  daughter 
he  could  not  have  desired  to  see  her  perform  her  part  better. 
It  was  settled  that  she  was  to  hold  a  Council  at  St.  James's 
this  day,  and  be  proclaimed  there  at  ten  o'clock,  and  she  ex- 
pressed a  wish  to  sec  Lord  Albemarle,  who  went  to  her  and 
told  her  he  was  come  to  take  her  orders.  She  said,  "  I  have 
no  orders  to  give ;  you  know  all  this  so  much  better  than  I 
do,  that  I  leave  it  all  to  you.  I  am  to  be  at  St.  James's  at 
ten  to-morrow,  and  must  beg  you  to  find  me  a  conveyance 
proper  for  the  occasion."  Accordingly  he  went  and  fetched 
her  in  state  with  a  great  escort.  The  Duchess  of  Kent  was 
in  the  carriage  with  her,  but  I  was  surprised  to  hear  so  little 
shouting,  and  to  see  so  few  hats  off  as  she  went  by.  I  rode 
do'.vn  the  Park,  and  saw  her  appear  at  the  window  when  she 
was  proclaimed.  The  Duchess  of  Kent  was  there,  but  not 
prominent ;  the  Queen  was  surrounded  by  her  Ministers,  and 


520  REIGN   OF  WILLIAM  IV.  [CHAP.  XXXII. 

courtsied  repeatedly  to  the  people,  who  did  riot,  however, 
hurrah  till  Lord  Lansdowne  gave  them  the  signal  Trom  the 
window.  At  twelve  she  held  a  Council,  at  which  she  pre- 
sided with  as  much  ease  as  if  she  had*  been  doing  nothing 
else  all  her  life,  and  though  Lord  Lansdowne  and  my  colleague 
had  contrived  between  them  to  make  some  confusion  with 
the  Council  papers,  she  was  not  put  out  by  it.  She  locked 
very  well,  and  though  so  small  in  stature,  and  without  much 
pretension  to  beauty,  the  gracefulness  of  her  manner  and  the 
good  expression  of  her  countenance  give  her  on  the  whole  a 
very  agreeable  appearance,  and  with  her  youth  inspire  an  ex- 
cessive interest  in  all  who  approach  her,  and  which  I  can't 
help  feeling  myself.  After  the  Council  she  received  the  Arch- 
bishops and  Bishops,  and  after  them  the  Judges.  They  all 
kissed  her  hand,  but  she  said  nothing  to  any  of  them,  very 
different  in  this  from  her  predecessor,  who  used  to  harangue 
them  all,  and  had  a  speech  ready  for  everybody. 

Conyngham,  when  he  came  to  her  with  the  intelligence  of 
the  King's  death,  brought  a  request  from  the  Queen  Dowager 
that  she  might  be  permitted  to  remain  at  Windsor  till  after 
the  funeral,  and  she  has  written  her  a  letter  couched  in  the 
kindest  terms,  begging  her  to  consult  nothing  but  her  own 
health  and  convenience,  and  to  remain  at  Windsor  just  as  long 
as  she  pleases.  In  short,  she  appears  to  act  with  every  sort 
of  good  taste  and  good  feeling,  as  well  as  good  sense,  and  as 
far  as  it  has  gone  nothing  can  be  more  favorable  than  the  im- 
pression she  has  made,  and  nothing  can  promise  better  than 
her  manner  and  conduct  do,  though  it  would  be  rash  to  count 
too  confidently  upon  her  judgment  and  discretion  in  more 
weighty  matters.  No  contrast  can  be  greater  than  that  be- 
tween the  personal  demeanor  of  the  present  and  the  late  sov- 
ereigns at  their  respective  accessions.  William  TV.  was  a 
man  who,  coming  to  the  throne  at  the  mature  age  of  sixty- 
five,  was  so  excited  by  the  exaltation,  that  he  nearly  went 
mad,  and  distinguished  himself  by  a  thousand  extravagances 
of  language  and  conduct,  to  the  alarm  or  amusement  of  all 
who  witnessed  his  strange  freaks ;  and  though  he  was  short- 
ly afterward  sobered  down  into  more  becoming  habits,  he 
always  continued  to  be  something  of  a  blackguard  and 
something  more  of  a  buffoon.  It  is  but  fair  to  his  memory  at 
the  same  time  to  say  that  he  was  a  good-natured,  kind-heart- 
ed, and  well-meaning  man,  and  he  always  acted  an  honorable 
and  straightforward,  if  not  always  a  sound  and  discreet,  part. 


1837.J  THE   QUEEN'S  BEHAVIOR.  521 

The  two  principal  Ministers  of  his  reign,  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington and  Lord  Grey  (though  the  former  was  only  his  Min- 
ister for  a  few  months),  have  both  spoken  of  him  to  me  with 
strong  expressions  of  personal  regard  and  esteem.  The 
young  Queen,  who  might  well  be  either  dazzled  or  confounded 
with  the  grandeur  and  novelty  of  her  situation,  seems  neither 
the  one  nor  the  other,  and  behaves  with  a  decorum  and  pro- 
priety beyond  her  years,  and  with  all  the  sedateness  and  dig- 
nity the  want  of  which  was  so  conspicuous  in  her  uncle. 


IIST  D  E  X. 


A  BERCEOMBY,  Eight  Hon.  James,  pro- 

/x  posed  as  Speaker,  ii.  127;  Master  of  the 
Mint,  251;  proposed  as  Speaker,  842; 
the  Speakership.  345;  elected  Speaker,  353. 

Aberdeen,  Earl  of,  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  i. 
105;  motion  about  Belgium,  it.  43. 

Achinet  Pasha,  concludes  a  treaty  with  Eus- 
sia,  ii.  223. 

Adair,  Eight  lion.  Sir  Eobert,  sworn  in  Privy 
Councilor,  i.  115. 

Addington,  Henry  TJnwin,  recalled  from 
Madrid,  ii.  181. 

Address,  proposed  amendment  to  the,  11. 
356. 

Adelaide,  Queen,  i.  362 ;  at  the  Ancient  Con- 
cert, 470;  -mobbed  in  the  City,  477;  au- 
dience of.  about  the  crown,  509 ;  coronation 
of,  519;  Lord  Howe,  ii.  131;  yacht,  255; 
return  of,  277 ;  illness  of,  ib. ;  supposed  to 
be  with  child,  83«,  341,  343. 

Adrian's  Villa,  i.  821. 

Agar  Ellis,  see  Dover,  Lord. 

Alava,  General,  and  the  Duke  of  Cumber- 
land, Ii.  406. 

Albani,  Cardinal,  Influence  of,  i.  2C4 ;  conver- 
sation with,  818 ;  interview  with,  824. 

Albano,  i.  231. 

Alexander,  Emperor  of  Euasla,  death  of,  i. 
6'J ;  coronation  of,  described  by  Talleyrand, 

I.  514. 

Allen,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Ely,  ii.  4S1. 

Allen,  John,  ii.  286;  unbelief  of,  447. 

Althorp,  Viscount,  proposed  as  Chairman  of 
the  Finance  Committee,  i.  101 ;  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  412;  introduces  the 
budget,  454 ;  leader  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, 455,  ii.  11 ;  letter  to  Attwood,  16, 17 ; 
hurries  on  the  Irish  Church  Bill,  152 ;  as 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  171 ;  arrested 
by  the  Sergeant-at-Arms,  217;  financial 
statement,  221 ;  defects  as  leader,  222 ; 
summons  a  meeting  of  the  supporters  of 
Government,  248 ;  resigns.  257 ;  popularity 
of,  260 ;  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  under 
Lord  Melbourne,  267 ;  succeeds  his  father 
as  Earl  Spencer,  290. 

Alvanley,  Lord,  duel  with  Morgan  O'Connell, 

II.  390 ;  on  Irish  affairs.  468. 
America,  dispute  with  France,  ii.  446. 
Anglesey,  Marquis  of.  recalled,  i.  120;  entry 

into  Dublin,  440;  disputes  with  O'Connell, 
446. 

Antwerp,  threatened  bombardment  of,  by  the 
Dutch,  ii.  116:  French  army  marches  to, 


Arbuthnot,  Eight  Hon.  Charles,  nickname 
"Gosh,"  i.  87;  conversation  with,  on  the 
Duke  of  Wellington's  Administration,  400; 
conversation  with,  at  Oatlands,  501. 

Arbuthnot,  Mrs.,  death  of,  ii.  2B9. 

Ark wright,  Sir  Eichard,  fortunes  of,  ii.  212. 

Arkwright,  Mrs.,  visit  to,  ii.  212. 

Arms  Bill,  the,  i.  524. 

Arnold,  Dr.,  proposed  for  a  bishopric,  ii.  448. 

Artevelde,  Philip  van,  ii.  263;  discussed  at 
Holland  House,  280. 

Ascot  Eaces,  1831,  i.  4S1 ;  1833,  ii.  162. 

Attwood,  Chairman  of  the  Birmingham  Un- 
ion, ii.  16,  17;  proclamation  against,  2t. 

Auckland,  Lord,  Board  of  Trade,  i.  412 ;  First 
Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  ii.  245,  267 ;  on  the 
state  of  affairs,  374;  First  Lord  of  the  Ad- 
miralty in  Lord  Melbourne's  second  Ad- 
ministration, 839. 

Augustus,  Prince,  of  Prussia,  ii.  115. 

Austin,  Mr.  John,  his  work  on  Jurisprudence, 
ii.  2S3. 

Austin,  Mr.  Charles,  ii.  103. 

Aylmer.  Lord,  recalled  from  Canada,  ii.  507; 
the  King's  address  to  him,  ib. 


T)ACHELOE,  valet  to  the  Duke  of  Tork 
_D    and  to  King  George  IV.,  i.  120,  121 ; 

conversation  with,  3S2. 
Bagot,  Lord,  conduct  to  Lord  Harrowby,  11. 

57. 

Baise,  Bay  of,  i.  290. 
Baring,  House  of,  i.  401. 
Baring,  Eight  Hon.  Alexander,  offered  the 

Chancellorship  of  the  Exchequer,  ii.  96; 

proposes  a  compromise  with  the  ex-Minis- 

ters,  97. 
Baring,  Francis,  Chairman  of  the  West  India 

Committee,  ii.  410. 
Barnes,  Mr.,  ^ditor  of  the   Times,  i.  433,  ii. 

24;  negotiations  with,  for  supporting  the 

Government,  803,  804;   dines  with  Lord 

Lyndhurst,  813,  815;  alarm  of,  at  the  pre- 
vailing spirit,  331. 
Brirri,  Madame  du,  ii.  23. 
Barry,  Dr.,  sent  to  Sunderland,  ii.  25;  report 

on  cholera,  2(5. 

Bath,  Chapter  of  the  Order  of  the,  i.  216. 
Bathurst.  Earl,  Lord  President,  i.  105;  death 

of,  ii.  268 ;  character  of.  ib. 
Bathurst,  Countess,  conversation  with,  i.  408. 
Bathurst,  Hon.  William,  appointed  Clerk  of 

the  Council,  I.  408,  420 ;  delay  In  appoint- 


IXDEX. 


623 


ment  of,  419 ;  sworn  in  Cler'.c  cf  the  Council, 

486. 
Bathurst,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Hon.  Seymour. 

death  of,  tt.  237. 
Baudrand,  General,    i.   3-4 ;    reception   oil 

839. 

Bazaar,  in  Hanover  Square,  ii.  153. 
Beauclerc.  Lord  Aurelius,  dances  a  country- 
dance  with  the  King,  il.  134. 
Belgian  question,  the.  settlement  of,  li.  111. 
Belgium,  revolution  in.  i.  890 ;  affairs  of,  898; 

unsettled  state  of,  415;  deputation  from, 

493;   fortresses  of,  500;   invaded  by  the 

Dutch,  506 ;  French  army  refuses  to  leave, 

511 ;  end  of  hostilities  with  the  Dutch,  518; 

Conference,  1882,  ii.  116. 
Belmoro,  Earl  of,  Governor  of  Jamaica,  i. 

119^24. 

Belvoir  Castle,  ii.  200. 
Benson,    Canon,    sermon   at    the    Temple 

Church,  i.  453. 
Bentinck,  Right  Hon.  Lord  William,  desires 

to  be  appointed  Governor- General  of  India, 

i.  JX) :  address  to  the  electors  of  Glasgow, 

ii.  460,  464;  qualities  of,  4CO;  inscription 

on  monument  in  honor  of,  461. 
Bentinck,  Lord  Henry,  quarrel  with  Sir  Roger 

Gresley.  i.4:3. 

Bergara,  Convention  of,  II.  892. 
Berri,  Duchesse  de,  in  La  Vendee,  ii.  117. 
Berry,  Miss,  ii.  219. 

Berryer.  M.,  ii.  494 ;  appearance  of,  495. 
Best,  Bight  Uon.  William  Draper,  see  Lord 

Wynford. 

Bcthnal  Green,  distress  in,  ii.  64. 
Bexley,  Lord,  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of 

Lancaster,  i.  80. 

Bickersteth,  Henry,  see  Lord  Langdale. 
Blaoas,  M.  de.  favorite  of  Louis  XVIII.,  ii. 

102. 

Black  Book,  the,  i.  423. 
Bloomfield,  Sir  Benjamin,  dismissal  of,  i.  46. 
Blonnt,  Rev.  Mr.,  sermon,  ii.  179. 
Body-snatchers,  ii.  85. 
Bologna,  i.  343. 
Bonaparte,  Emperor  Napoleon,  in  the  100 

days.  i.  21 ;   campaigns  of,  described  by 

Marshal  Marmont.  886. 
Bonaparte,  Louis  Napoleon,  Strasburg  at- 
tempt ii.  41)6. 
Bonaparte,  Joseph,  at  dinner  at  Lady  Cork's, 

ii.  1S5. 
Bonaparte,  Luclen  introduced  to  tha  Duke 

of  Wellington,  il.  179;  at  dinner  at  Lady 

Cork's,  185. 

Boodle's,  dinner  at,  i.  462.         « 
Bosanquet,  Right  Hon.  Sir  John  Bernard, 

sworn  in  a  Privy  Councilor,  ii.  195;  Judge 

of  the  King's  Bench.  2»). 
Boswell,  "  Life  of  Johnson,"  anecdotes  lost, 

i.  4!6. 

Boulogne,  ii.  501 . 

Bourbon,  Duke  dc,  death  of.  i.  898. 
Bourmont,  Marshal  de,  marches  on  Li;bon, 

ii.  191. 
Bourne,  Rhjht  Hon.  Sturgcs,  Secretary  of 

State  for  the  Home  Department,  i.  SO. 
Bowring,  Dr..  sent  to  Paris,  il.  28;  eatire  of 

Moore  on,  29 ;  career  tit,  ib. 


Bradshaw,  Mrs.,  acting  of,  at  Bridzewater 
House,  ii.  472. 

Brescia,  i.  350. 

Bretby,  visit  to,  ii,  449;   Chesterfield  Pa- 
pers, 450. 

Bridgewater  House,  dramatic  performances 
at,  ii.  471,  473. 

Bridgewater  Election,  ii.  571 . 

Brighton,  the  Court  at,  ltjiJ'2,  il.  12$:  races. 
Is35,  414. 

Bristol,  riots  at,  ii.  19. 

Broglie,  Duke  de,  conduct  of,  ii.  500. 

Brookes's  Club,  ii.  444. 

Brougham,  Lord,  attack  upon,  in  Quarterly 
Review,  i.  14;  speech  on  the  Queen's  trial, 
30;  letter  to  the  Queen,  4S;  character  of, 
99;  qualities  of,  372.  3S4;  appointed  Lord 
Hi^h  Chancellor,  411;  discontent  ot,  it).; 
social  qualities  of,  415;  anecdote  of,  447; 
quarrel  with  Sugden,  ib.  ;  correspondence 
with  Southey  on  rewards  to  literary  men, 
452;  speech  on  Chancery  Reform,  457; 
domestic  kindness  of,  459 ;  origin  of  repre- 
sentation of  Yorkshire,  468 ;  as  Lord  Chan- 
cellor, 466;  at  the  Horse  Guards,  ib. ;  us  a 
judge,  480 ;  at  dinner  at  Hanbury's  brew- 
ery, 4s3 ;  at  the  British  Museum,  484 ; 
claims  the  old  Great  Seal  517;  intention 
of  sitting  at  the  Privy  Council,  ii.  82; 
speech  on  the  Russian  Loan,  4'.' ;  quarrel 
with  Sugden,  109;  anecdote  o$  llo;  Bill 
for  creating  new  Court  of  Appeal,  134;  Bill 
objected  to,  186 ;  Judicial  Committee  of  the 
Privy  Council  Bill,  153;  site  on  the  case  of 
Drax  rs.  Grosvenor,  157;  as  Chancellor. 
188;  anecdotes  of  Queen  Caroline,  200;  and 
Sir  William  Home,  227 ;  meets  Sir  Thomas 
Denman  in  Bedfordshire,  230;  judicial 
changes,  ib. ;  defense  of  himself,  231 ;  apol- 
ogy for,  235;  speech  on  Loyd  Wynford's 
Bill  for  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  241 ; 
on  the  Pluralities  Bill,  243;  on  the  Irish 
Church,  260;  and  the  Times.  252;  Lord 
Chancellor  in  Lord  Melbourne's  Adminis- 
tration, 267;  and  Lord  Weatmeath,  27'.'; 
conduct  in  the  Westmeath  case,  ib. ;  272, 
276 ;  versatility  of,  273 ;  lines  applied  to, 
ib. ;  Greek  epigrams,  ib. ;  ambition  of, 
274;  in  Scotland.  284 ;  communicates  to 
the  Time*  the  fall  of  Lord  Melbourne's 
first  Administration.  2^3  ;  resigns  the  Great 
Seal,  304 ;  takes  leave  of  the  Bar,  ib. ;  asks 
for  the  Chief  Baronship,  9i5 ;  anecdote,  829; 
conduct  of,  in  the  case  of  Swift  r».  Kelly, 
2118, 400;  on  the  London  University  Char- 
ter, 394 ;  judgment  in  the  case  of  Swift  n 
Kelly,  406;  on  the  Corporation  Bill  415 
violence  in  tho  House  of  Lords,  42':) ;  ill- 
ness of.  452 ;  and  Macaulay.  463,  45-J ;  at 
Queen  Victoria's  first  Council,  513. 

BrummeU  "  Beau,"  i.  240. 

Brussels,  disturbance  at,  I.  800. 

Buccleuch,  Duke  of,  subscription  to  election 
expenses,  ii.  826. 

Budget,  the,  1881,  i.  458. 

Buller,  James,  death  of,  I.  407. 

BCUow,  Baron  von,  on   English  affairs,  IL 
851. 

Bnlwer,  Sir  Edward  Lytton,  II.  463. 


624 


INDEX. 


Bunsen,  Baron,  i.  269 ;  career  of,  278 ;  on  Eo- 
man  affairs,  381. 

Burdett,  Sir  Francis,  returned  for  Westmin- 
ster, 1837,  ii.  611. 

Burghersh,  Lord,  at  Florence,  i.  254 ;  ama 
tour  opera,  256. 

Burghersh,  Lady,  Intercedes  for  a  prisoner 
at'the  Old  Bailey,  i.  429. 

Burghley,  party  at,  ii.  215. 

Burke,  Eight  Hon.  Edmund,  writings  of,  ii. 
849 ;  compared  with  Mackintosh,  489. 

Burke,  Sir  G.,  conversation  with,  on  O'Con- 
nell,  i.  441. 

Buxton,  Fowell,  dinner  at  the  Brewery,  i.  488. 

Byng,  Eight  Hon.  George,  Lord  of  the  Treas- 
ury, i.  251. 

Byron,  Lord,  Moore's  Life  of,  i.  282 ;  charac- 
'ter  of,  ib. 


( 1 AMBKIDGE,  II.  E.  II.  the  Duchess  of,  re- 

\J  ception  of,  i.  1. 

Cambridge,  University  of,  petition  for  the 
admission  of  Dissenters  to  the,  ii.  232,  234. 

Campbell,  Sir  John,  Solicitor-General,  ii.  127 ; 
Attorney-General,  291. 

Canada,  affairs  in,  ii.  469. 

Canning.  Eight  Hon.  Sir  Stratford,  Embassa- 
dor  to  St.  Petersburg,  ii.  143, 146 ;  anecdote 
of,  208 ;  offered  the  Governor-Generalship 
of  Canada,  371. 

Canning,  Eight  Hon.  George,  Foreign  Secre- 
tary, i.  46 ;  correspondence  with  the  King 
on  taking  office,  50 ;  forms  an  Administra- 
tion (1827),  78,  SO ;  death  of,  87 ;  anecdotes 
of,  88 ;  industrious  habits  of,  90 ;  memoirs 
of,  223,  291 ;  dispatch  in  verse,  278 ;  saga- 
city of,  881 ;  conversation  with  the  King, 
443  ;  correspondence  with  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  444 ;  coldness  to  the  Duke 
of  Wellington,  ib.  ;  anecdote  of,  468 ;  nego- 
tiation with  the  Whigs,  5ul ;  influence  over 
Lord  Liverpool,  503;  in  favor  with  the 
King,  ib. ;  on  Eeform,  ii.  285;  and  King 
George  IV.,  288. 

Canning,  Lndy,  visit  to,  i.  442 ;  authorship  of 
pamphlet,  ii.  203. 

Canning,  Mr.  Charles,  offered  a  Lordship  of 
the  Treasury,  ii.  843. 

Cannizzaro,  Duchess  of,  ii.  178 ;  crowns  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  517. 

Canterbury,  Archbishop  of,  indecision  of  the, 
ii.  55,  65 ;  importance  of  support  of  the. 
56,  57. 

Canterbury,  Viscount,  declines  to  go  to  Can- 
ada, ii.  371. 

Capo  di  Monte,  i.  285. 

Capua,  i.  806. 

Cardinals,  the,  i.  263. 

Carlisle,  Earl  of,  Lord  Privy  Seal,  i.  80 ;  ii.  245. 

Carlists,  the,  in  Spain,  ii.  226. 

Carlos.  Don,  in  London,  ii.  254. 

Carlow  election,  ii.  467. 

Carnarvon,  Earl  of,  refuses  to  move  the  ad- 
dress in  the  House  of  Lords,  ii.  343. 

Caroline,  Queen,  return  of,  i.  24 ;  trial  of,  27, 
80;  anecdote  of,  ii.  201. 

Carvalho,  Minister  of  Finance  to  Dom  Pedro. 
11.249, 


Catacombs,  the,  see  Eome. 

Catholic  emancipation,  i.  139, 145, 147. 

Catholic  Belief  Bill,  excitement  concerning 
the,  i.  153 ;  debates  on,  see  Lords  and  Com- 
mons. 

Cato  Street  Conspiracy,  the,  i.  22. 

Cayla,  Madame  du,  i.  60;  dinner  at  the  Duke 
of  Wellington's,  182;  Stranger's  verses  on, 
168 ;  favorite  of  Louis  XVIIL,  ii.  103. 

Cenis,  the  Mont,  i.  244. 

Champollion,  Jean  Francois,  death  of,  ii.  104. 

Chabert,  the  "  Fire  King,"  i.  234. 

Chapeau  de  Faille,  the  purchase  of.  1.  468. 

Chapel,  near  Holland  House,  unable  to  be 
consecrated,  ii.  841. 

Charles  I.,  King,  head  of,  discovered  at 
Windsor,  i.  499 ;  executioner  of,  ii.  2fe3. 

Charles  X.,  King,  of  France,  arrival  of,  In 
England,  i.  888 ;  at  Lulworth  CastIS,  884 ; 
off  Cowes,  885. 

Charlotte,  Queen,  illness  of,  1, 1,  2. 

Charlotte,  H.  E.  H.  the  Princess,  anecdotes 
of,  ii.  115. 

Chartres.  H.  E.  H.  the  Due  de,  arrival  of,  i. 
177. 

Chatham,  Earl  of,  death  of,  ii.  441. 

Chatsworth,  hospitality  at,  i.  202 ;  charade  at, 
ib.  ;  party  at  »99. 

Cuesterfleld  Papers,  the,  ii.  450. 

Cholera  in  Eussia,  i.  405 ;  account  of,  485 ; 
preventive  measures  against,  488 ;  ii.  855 ; 
effect  on  trade,  i.  490;  spread  of,  494; 
alarm  about,  600;  at  Berlin.  521 ;  at  Sun- 
derland,  ii.  19,  21 ;  at  Marseilles,  31 ;  on 
the  decline,  83;  near  Edinburgh,  46:  in 
London,  61,  62 ;  in  Bethnal  Green,  64 ;  ac- 
count of,  79 ;  diminution  of,  85 ;  in  Paris, 
87  ;  alarm  in  London,  105, 107. 

Christina,  Queen,  of  Spain,  ii.  226,  231 ;  re- 
ported flight,  of,  478  ;  courage  of,  482. 

Christmas-trees,  introduced  by  Princess  Lie- 
ven  at  Panshanger,  i.  220. 

Church  Bill,  the  Committee  on,  ii.  841. 

Church  Eeform,  ii.  247. 

City,  the,  address  to  the  King,  i.  463 ;  illu- 
mination in,  475;  election,  1835,  ii.  828, 880, 
881 ;  anxiety  in  the  money-market,  489, 491. 

Civil  List,  the,  excess  of  expenditure  on,  i. 
215;  for  debates  on,  see  Commons,  House 
of. 

Clanricarde,  Marquis  of,  sworn  in  a  Privy 
Councilor,  i.  423. 

Clarence,  II.  E.  H.  the  Duke  of,  Lord  High 
Admiral,  i.  80 ;  removal  of,  from  the  office 
of  Lord  High  Admiral,  117, 119.  See  Wil- 
liam IV. 

Cobbett,  WilHam,  trial  of,  i.  191 ;  returned 
for  Oldham,  ii.  128;  takes  his  scat,  142; 
and  Sir  Eobert  Peel,  160. 

Cochrane,  Lord,  at  Florence,  i.  255;  villa 
near  Florence,  257. 

Codrington,  Sir  E.,  interview  with  the  Duke 
of  Wellington,  i.  151. 

Coercion  Bill,  the,  introduced,  ii.  148. 

Colchester  Election,  i.  266. 

Commons,  House  of;  Alien  Bill,  i.  1 ;  Dr. 
Halloratfs  petition,  12;  debate  on  grant  tc 
the  Duke  of  York,  15;  debates  on  Queer 
Caroline,  26,  27,  82;  Small  Notes  Bill,  67; 


INDEX. 


525 


debates  on  Catholic  Relief  Bill.  73. 112, 140, 
161 ;  division  on  Catholic  Relief  Bill,  166; 
Catholic  Relief  Bill  read  a  third  time.  17-'; 
Regency  and  Civil  List,  81*4;  debate  on 
the  Eveshani  election,  377;  debate  on  the 
Civil  List,  440 ;  announcement  of  the  Re- 
form Bill  ib. ;  Pension  List,  441 ;  debate 
on  Ireland,  454 ;  Budget  of  1831,  452;  pro- 
posed reductions,  457;  Introduction  of  the 
first  Reform  Bill.  4(50 ;  debates  on  the  Re- 
form Bill,  401,  463;  debate  on  the  Timber 
duties,  4,61;  debate  on  the  Reform  Bill, 
463;  division  on  the  Reform  Bill,  4(59; 
Government  defeated,  471 ;  scene  in  the 
House,  ib. ;  second  reading  of  the  Reform 
Bill,  400;  Wine  duties,  493;  Reform  Bill, 
Schedule  A,  501;  second  Reform  Bill,  ii. 
85;  debate  on,  and  second  reading  of  the 
second  Reform  Bill  carried,  86;  Reform 
Bill  supported  by  the  Irish  members,  45; 
division  on  the  Russian  Loan,  46;  division 
on  the  sugar  duties,  69 ;  Reform  Bill 

Sassed,  72;  debates,  94;  violent  scene  in 
ebate  on  petition  of  the  City  of  London, 
!)7;  Irish  Tithe  Question.  105;  debate  on, 
106;  debate  on  the  Address,  143;  Irish 
Church  Reform,  144;  aspect  of  the  re- 
formed House,  149;  debate  on  Slave 
Emancipation,  153;  vote  of  confidence  in 
the  Ministers,  163;  division  on  the  Irish 
Church  Bill,  167;  vote  against  sinecures, 
ISO;  division  on  Apprenticeship  Clause  of 
West  India  Bill,  ls#;  disorganized  state 
of  the  House,  184;  Pension  List,  222; 
business  of  the  House,  ib. ;  debate  on  the 
Corn  Laws,  2zS;  debate  on  admission  of 
Dissenters  to  the  University,  234 ;  debate 
on  Repeal  of  the  Union,  288;  Pension  List, 
ib. ;  debate  on  Portugal,  240 ;  Poor  Law 
Bill,  241 ;  debate  on  Irish  Tithe  Bill,  253, 
255;  gallery  for  reporters,  346 ;  debate  on 
the  Speakership,  353;  debate  on  the  Ad- 
dress, 359 ;  debate  and  division  on  amend- 
ment to  the  Address,  302;  Malt  Tax,  862; 
debate  on  appointment  of  Lord  London- 
derry, 868 ;  Dissenters'  Marriage  Bill,  363 ; 
Government  beaten  on  Chatham  election, 
871 ;  state  of  parties  in  the  House,  ib.  ; 
debate  and  division  on  Irish  Church  ques- 
tion, 876;  uproar  in  the  House,  879;  Gov- 
ernment defeated  on  Irish  Tithe  Bill,  8S2 ; 
debate  on  Irish  Church  Bill,  411 ;  position 
of  the  House,  417,  419;  conflict  with  the 
House  of  Lords,  378 ;  debate  and  division 
on  the  amendment  to  the  address,  456; 
effect  of  division,  457 ;  Opposition  defeat- 
ed, 466;  division,  477;  Irish  Corporation 
Bill,  5U2;  insult  to  Lord  Lyndhurst,  502; 
debates  on  Irish  Tithe  Bill,  504;  abandon- 
ment of  the  appropriation  clauses,  106. 

Como,  i.  858. 

Conroy,  Sir  John,  i.  519:  ii.  172. 

Conservative  Club,  dinner  at,  ii.  121; 
speeches,  122. 

Constantine,  the  Grand  Duke,  accident  to, 
i.  220 ;  death  of.  41)6. 

Convention  signed  between  France.  Eng- 
land, and  Holland,  Ii.  169. 


Conyngham,  Marquis  of,  Postmaster-Gen- 
eral, ii.  245,  267. 

Conyngham,  Marchioness  of,  i.  39 ;  wears  a 
Crown  jewel,  40;  Court  intrigues,  176. 

Conyngham,  Lord  Francis,  i.  42. 

Coprogu,  History  of  the  Grand  Vizier,  il. 
26S. 

Cornelius,  painter,  i.  4S8. 

Coronation,  the,  of  William  IV.  decided  on, 
i  490;  preparations  for,  491.  41>6,  4'J7;  es- 
timates for,  511 ;  disputes  over  the  arrange- 
ments for,  516. 

Cottenham,  Lord,  Lord  High  Chancellor,  ii. 
450. 

Cotton,  Sir  Willoughby,  suppresses  the  in- 
surrection in  Jamaica,  ii.  05 ;  on  affairs  in 
Jamaica,  166. 

Council,  Clerk  of  the,  Mr.  Greville  sworn  in, 
i.  87;  after  the  accession  of  William  IV., 
867;  Lord  Grey's  Administration  sworn 
in,  417;  for  the  proclamation  against  riot- 
ers, 418;  recorder's  report  in,  428;  clerks 
of  the,  430;  scene  at  Council  for  a  new 
Great  Seal,  517. 

Council,  Privy;  suttee  case-before  the,  ii. 
104;  embargo  on  Dutch  ships,  136 ;  meet- 
ing of  the,  on  the  London  University  peti- 
tion, 23S ;  counter-petition  of  Oxford  and 
Cambridge,  ib. 

Council,  Cabinet:  the  first  of  Lord  Mel- 
bourne's Administration,  ii.  272 ;  the  first 
of  Sir  Robert  Peel's  Administration,  819. 

Covcnt  Garden  Theatrical  Fund  Dinner,  i. 
174. 

Coventry,  glove-trade,  il.  83. 

Cowley,  Abraham,  lines  from  "Ode  to  Soli- 
tude," ii.  73. 

Cowpor,  Earl,  at  Panshanger,  ii.  87. 

Cowper,  Countess,  at  Panshanger,  ii.  86. 

Cowper,  William,  Life  of,  by  Southey,  il.  2S5. 

Cradock,  Colonel,  sent,  to  Charles  X.,  i.  3S8. 

Crampton,  Sir  Philip,  Irish  story,  1.  206. 

Craven,  Earl  of,  disperses  a  mob,  1.  422;  on 
the  proposed  new  Peers,  Ii.  89. 

Craven,  General,  the  Hon.  Berkeley,  suicldo 
of,  ii.  469. 

Crawford,  William,  member  for  the  City  of 
London,  ii.  321. 

Creevey,  Mr.,  i.  199. 

Croker,  Right  Hon.  John  Wilson,  edition  of 
"Boswefi's  Life  of  Johnson,"  i.  446;  re- 
views lost,  447. 

Cumberland.  II.  R.  II.  the  Duke  of,  opposi- 
tion to  Catholic  Relief  Bill,  i.  152;  in- 
trigues at  Court,  188;  insults  Lsdy  l.yn.l- 
hurst,  ib.,  189;  quarrel  with  Lord  Lynd- 
hurst,  190 ;  disputes  concerning  the  office 
of  "Gold  Stick/' 860,  874. 

Cumberland,  H.  R.  H.  the  Dnchess  of,  I.  2. 

Cuvier,  Baron,  death  of,  ii.  10J. 


DALBERO,  Duke  de,  letter  ca  European 
affairs,  i.  898. 

Dawson,  Right  Hon.  Georco  Robert,  speech 
on   Catholic   Km.-inoipation,   i-   117,  170; 
sworn  in  a  Privy  Councilor,  418. 
Do  Cazos.  l)uk<\  'flivorito  of  Louis  XVIII., 


526 


INDEX. 


it.  102 ;  Embassador  to  the  Court  of  St. 
James,  108. 

Dedel  M.,  Dutch  Minister  at  the  Court  of 
St.  James,  ii.  197. 

Denbigh,  Karl  of,  Chamberlain  to  Queen 
Adelaide,  ii.  184;  sworn  in  Privy  Coun- 
cilor, 143. 

Penman,  Lord,  correspondence  with  the 
King,  i.  133 :  sworn  in  a  Privy  Councilor, 
ii.  128 ;  Lord  Chief-Justice,  124 ;  qualities 
of,  125;  meeting  of,  with  Lord  Brougham, 
in  Bedfordshire,  230 ;  raised  to  the  Peer- 
age, 2:33. 

Derby  Dilly,  the,  ii.  372,  874,  S87. 

De  Eos,  Lord,  in  Rome,  i.  813. 

Do  Eos,  Colonel,  the  Hon.  Arthur  John  Hill, 
death  of,  i.  6S;  character  of,  C9. 

Dickenson,  Captain,  trial  of,  by  court-mar- 
tial, i.  kCO. 

Diebitsch,  Marshal,  death  of,  from  cholera,  i. 
488. 

Dino,  Due  de,  arrest  of  the,  i.  21C. 

Dino,  Duchesse  de,  i.  404 ;  on  the  state  of 
France,  523. 

Discontent  throughout  the  country,  i.  448. 

Disraeli,  Benjamin,  projects  for  "sitting  in 
Parliament,  ii.  815. 

Dissenters'  Marriage  Bill,  li.  848,  £63.  For 
debates  on,  see  Commons,  House  of. 

Dorsetshire  election,  1831,  ii.  14,  10;  crime 
in,  236. 

Dover,  Lord,  resigns  the  Woods  and  For- 
ests, i,  449 ;  created  a  Peer,  484 ;  death  of, 
ii.  172;  character  of,  il.;  Life  of  Freder- 
ick II.,  174;  book  on  the  Man  in  the  Iron 
Mask.  ib. 

Down,  deanery  of,  ii.  230. 

Drax  vs.  Grosvenor,  case  of,  ii.  22 ;  lunacy 
case,  157;  decision  on,  162;  final  meeting 
on,  164. 

Drummond,  Henry,  mission  to  the  Arch- 
bishop of  York,  ii.  455. 

Dublin  Police  BUI,  ii.  455. 

Dudley,  Earl  of,  Secretary  of  State  for  For- 
eign Affairs,  i.  80,  105 ;  dinner  to  Marshal 
Marmont,  8£9 ;  eccentricity  of,  ii.  73,  74. 

"Duke  of  Milan,1''  quotation  from  the,  i. 
160. 

Dulcken,  Madam,  performs  before  the  Judi- 
cial Committee,  ii.  448. 

Duncannon,  Viscount,  ii.  259 ;  called  to  the 
House  of  Lords,  and  Secretary  of  State, 
263;  sworn  in,  2C6;  Home  Secretary,  267; 
on  O'Connell,  270;  at  a  fire  in  Edward 
Street,  ib. :  on  the  state  of  affairs,  338 ; 
Commissioner  of  Woods  and  Forests  un- 
der Lord  Melbourne,  890. 

I'uneombe,  Hon  Thomas  Slingsby,  maiden 
speech  of,  i.  108 ;  petition  from  Barnet,  ii. 
50;  guilty  of  libel,  177;  at  Hillingdon, 
27o. 

Durham,  Earl  of,  quarrel  with  Lady  Jersey, 
i.  458;  influence  over  Lord  Grey,  ii.  81: 
attack  on  Lord  Grey  at  a  Cabinet  dinner, 
84 ;  rudeness  of,  71 ;  return  from  Eus- 
sia,  126 ;  violence  of,  ib. ;  created  an  earL 
158. 

Dwarrla,  Sir  Fartnnatus,  dinner  at  tho  hocso 
of.  U.  W3. 


EAST.  Sir  E.  Hyde,  sworn  in  Privy  Coun- 
cilor, i.  489. 

Eboli,  Duchesse  d',  ball  at  Naples,  i.  285. 

Ebrington,  Viscount,  moves  a  vote  of  confi- 
dence in  the  Government,  ii.  13,  15. 

Ebury,  Lord,  sworn  in  a  Privy  Councilor,  1. 
422. 

Egremont,  Earl  of,  nt  Petworth,  ii.  159; 
wealth  of,  130 ;  hospitality  to  the  poor,  24^. 

Eldon,  Earl  of,  audience  of  King  George  IV., 
1.  167 ;  speech  at  Apsley  House,  ii.  10 ;  ca- 
reer of,  164;  tribute  to,  206. 

Election,  General,  in  1880,  i.  873, 887 ;  In  1831, 
475,  477,  478,  480;  In  1832,  ii.  128;  in  1835, 
828,  832,  884,  885;  results  of,  337;  in  the 
counties,  840 ;  result.  342. 

Eliot,  Lord,  return  of,  from  Spain,  ii.  392 ; 
conversation  with  Louis  Philippe,  ib. 

Ellenborough,  Earl  of,  Lord  Privy  Seal,  1. 
105;  letter  to  Sir  John  Malcolm,  231;  on 
"West  India  affairs,  ii.  141 ;  on  Egypt,  142 : 
speech  on  admission  of  Dissenters  to  the 
University,  232. 

Ellesmere,  Earl  of,  Irish  Secretary,  i.  124. 

Ellice,  Eight  Hon.  Edward,  ii.  259;  and  tho 
Colchester  election,  206 ;  Secretary  for  Wai1, 
267 ;  in  Paris,  493. 

Elliot,  Frederic,  letter  from  Canada,  ii.  448. 

Epsom  races,  1831,  i.  479 ;  in  1633,  ii.  160. 

Erskine,  Eight  Hon.  Thomas,  sworn  in  a 
Privy  Councilor,  ii.  82;  Chief  Judge  in 
Bankruptcy,  ib. 

Escars,  Duchesse  d\  at  a  party  given  by  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  i.  182. 

Este,  Sir  Augustus  d',  behavior  of,  i.  522. 

Esterhazy,  Prince  Paul,  conversation  with,  i. 
890;  on  Belgian  affairs,  517;  on  the  stato 
of  England,  ii.  196;  on  affairs  in  Europe, 
487;  conversation  with,  490. 

Europe,  state  of,  i.  434 ;  in  1831,  516;  in  1836, 
ii.  437. 

Evans,  General  de  Lacy,  ii.  498;  reported 
death  of,  477. 

Evans,  the  incendiary,  arrest  of,  i.  416. 

Exeter,  Bishop  of,  correspondence  with  Lord 
Melbourne,  i.  489;  interview  with  Lord 
Grey,ii.  16;  talents  of,  86;  ambition  of,  88. 

FALCK.  Baron,  i.  369,  390. 
Ferdinand,  Emperor,  of  Austria,  ii.  490. 

Fergusson,  Eight  Hon.  Cutlar,  Judge  Advo- 
cate, ii.  251. 

Ferrara,  i.  845. 

Fieschi,  conspiracy,  it.  415. 

Fingall,  Earl  of,  created  a  Baron  of  the  Uni- 
ted Kingdom,  i.  484. 

Finsbury  election,  1834,  Radical  returned,  11. 
255. 

Fitzclarence,  Colonel  George,  see  Munster, 
Earl  of. 

Fitzclarence,  Lord  Frederick,  resigns  appoint- 
ment at  the  Tower,  ii.  150. 

Fitzclarence,  Lord  Adolphus,  picture  of,  i. 
509. 

Fitzclarence,  Lord  Augustus,  at  Ascot,  i.  482 ; 
picture  of,  506. 

FitzcJarence,  Lady  Augusta,  marriage  of;  il. 
481. 


INDEX. 


527 


Fitzgerald.  Right  Hon.  Vesey,  i.  127. 

FiUherbert,  Mrs.,  death  of,  ii.  SOS;  docu- 
ments of  509. 

Flabault  Madame  de,  anecdotes  of  Princess 
Charlotte,  ii.  115:  union  of,  in  Paris,  490. 

Fleury,  Cardinal  ii.  ]38. 

Florence,  i.  254;  sights  of.  2£5;  society  at, 
i.57:  sculpture,  ^55,  2i>6;  pictures,  257; 
Grand  Duke,  ib. 

Foley,  Lord,  sworn  in  a  Privy  Councilor,  1. 
4.5 ;  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Worcestershire, 
ib. ;  at  St.  James's,  ii.  95. 

Fonblanque,  Albany,  ii.  4G3. 

Forester,  Right  Hon.  Colonel  Cecil,  resigns 
his  appointment  as  Groom  of  the  Bedcham- 
ber, i.  457. 

Forfar  election,  1S85,  ii.  £89. 

Fox.  Mrs.  Lane,  accompanies  the  Prince  of 
Orange  to  Gravesend,  i.  470 ;  receives  the 
Cabinet  Ministers,  ii.  290. 

Fox,  Eight  Hon.  Charles  James,  described 
by  "I  aUcyrand.  ii.  136. 

Fox,  W.  J.,  Unitarian  minister,  sermon,  ii. 
2v>6. 

France,  state  of  affairs  in.  i.  241 ;  appearance 
of  the  country,  244;  impending  crisis  in 
1S30,  313;  events  in  1830,371;  revolution, 
872 ;  Duke  of  Orleans  ascends  the  throne, 
H79 ;  political  prospects,  ib.  ;  reconstruc- 
tion of  the  Constitution,  3SO ;  army  ordered 
to  Belgium,  508;  army  in  Belgium,  511; 
seizure  of  Portuguese  ships,  513 ;  republi- 
can tendencies  of,  516;  state  of  the  coun- 
try. 1831,  £23;  weakness  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  Louis  Philippe,  ii.  117;  dispute 
v,-ith  America,  446 ;  state  of  the  country, 
406 

Francis.  Sir  Philip,  handwriting  of,  i.  199. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  i.  514. 

Franz  Joseph,  Archduke,  ii.  490. 

Frascati,  convent  at,  i.  251' ;  dinner  at,  ib.  ; 
visit  to,  882. 


p  ALLATIN,  Albert,  i.  213. 

UT    Gambler.  Lord,  proxy  of.  ii.  85. 

Garrick,  David,  anecdotes  of,  ii.  112. 

Cell,  Sir  William,  at  Borne,  i.  816,  819. 

Geneva,  i.  854. 

Genoa,  i.  '24S;  palaces,  249,  261;  churches, 
250;  tomb  of  Andrew  Doria,  251. 

George  111.,  death  of.  i.  20;  will  54;  jewels 
and  property,  55 ;  dislike  of  the  Duke  of 
Richmond,  ii.  2SO. 

George  IV.,  illness  of,  i.  20;  nt  the  Pavilion. 
41;  interview  with,  77;  health  and  habits 
of.  121 ;  violent  dislike  to  tho  Catholic  Ee- 
lief  BIU.  180,  153;  character  of,  131;  per- 
sonal habits  of.  160;  interview  with  the 
Lord  Chancellor,  the  Duke  of  Wellington, 
and  Sir  Eobert  Peel,  171 ;  health  of,  175; 
racing  interests  of.  180 ;  anecdotes  concern- 
ing, 1S4;  eyesight  affected,  IDS,  201;  cour- 
age of,  20l";  conduct  in  reference  to  Mr. 
Denman,  218;  illness  of,  818:  death  of, 
855;  funeral  of,  8J.9;  sale  of  wardrobe, 
876 ;  details  of  Ust  LbMU,  8S2 ;  anecdotes 
concerning,  513. 


Gerard,  Marshal,  reported  resignation  of,  L 
804;  ordered  to  Belgium.  503. 

Gibson,  John.  R.  A.,  at  Rome,  i.  826. 

Gladstone.  William  Ewart,  West  India  Com- 
mittee, ii.  410. 

"Glenfinlas"  performed  nt  Bridgewater 
House,  ii.  472,  473. 

Glengall,  Earl  of,  comedy  by  the,  i.  212. 

GlengaU,  Countess  of.  i.  428. 

Glenelg,  Lord,  President  of  the  Board  of 
Trade,  i.  105;  Board  of  Control,  412.  U. 
267 ;  Colonial  Secretary  in  Lord  Mel- 
bourne's second  Administration,  890 ;  and 
the  King,  407. 

Gloucester.  II.  K.  H.,  the  Duke  of,  i.  862. 

Goderich,  Viscount,  Small  Notes  Bill,  1.  CO; 
Secretary  of  State  for  Colonial  Affairs  ana 
War,  SO;  sent  for  by  the  King,  90;  scene 
at  Windsor,  91 ;  Administration  of,  formed, 
ib.;  resignation  of,  97;  returns  to  office, 
9S;  Ministry  dissolved,  101 ;  Colonial  Sec- 
retary. 412 ;  Lord  Privy  Seal  ii.  154 ;  cre- 
ated an  earl,  155 ;  invested  with  the  Order 
of  the  Garter,  ib. 

Goethe,  Johann  Wolfgang  von,  death  of,  ii. 
104. 

Goodwood,  i.  512 ;  in  1888.  ii.  ISC. 

Gorhambury,  party  at,  i.  517. 

u  Goriot,  Le  Pure.1'  ii.  498. 

Gonlburn.  Right  Hon.  Henry,  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer,  i.  1(J5. 

Graham,  Right  Hon.  Sir  James,  First  Lord 
of  the  Admiralty,  i.  412;  elevation  of,  433; 
remarks  on,  434;  resignation  of,  ii.  2-15; 
declines  to  join  the  Peel  Administration, 
821;  conservative  spirit  of,  8S3;  on  the 
crisis  of  1 885,  ib.  ;  joins  the  Opposition,  404. 

Grange,  The,  attacked  by  a  motv,  i.  414. 

Grant,  Right  Hon.  Charles,  see  Glenelg.  Lord. 

Granville,  Earl,  Embassador  in  Paris,  11.  499. 

Grnnvillc,  Countess,  i.  91;  quarrel  with  M. 
Thiers,  ii.  494. 

Greece,  policy  of  the  English  Government 
toward.  L  217. 

Greenwich,  dinner  at,  ii.  170. 

Grenviile,  Thomas,  conduct  during  the  riots 
of  1780,  ii.  281. 

Gresley,  Sir  Roger,  quarrel  with  Lord  II.  Ben- 
ttnck,  i.  488. 

Greville,  Charles,  sen.,  death  of,  U.  114. 

Greville,  Mrs.,  "Ode  to  Indifference,"  ii.  114. 

Greville,  Algernon,  private  secretary  to  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  ii.  809. 

Grey,  Earl,  hostility  to  the  Government  i. 
85;  forms  an  Administration,  1880,  411, 
418;  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  413;  at 
dinner  at  Lord  Sefton's,  415;  nepotism  of, 
422 ;  character  of,  481 ;  relations  with  Lord 
Lyndhurst,  ib. ;  lays  the  Reform  Bill  be- 
fore the  King.  499 ;  weakness  of  Govern- 
ment In  the  House  of  Commons,  455;  re- 
marks on  Administration  of,  478 ;  invested 
with  the  Order  of  the  Garter.  481 ;  at  din- 
ner at  Hanbfry's  Brewery,  488 ;  attacked 
on  his  foreign  policy,  50s ;  on  Belgian  «f- 
folrs,  ib. ;  attacked  by  Lord  Durham,  it 
84 ;  proposed  new  Peers,  87 :  altered  con- 
duct of,  89 ;  roluctnnco  to  make  new  Peers, 
."•2 ;  oinTprsitloB  with,  f4 :  Interrlew  wttb 


528 


INDEX. 


Lord  Harrowby  and  Lord  Wharncliffe,  62 ; 
minute  of  compromise  with  Lord  Harrow- 
by  and  Lord  Wharncliffe,  C3;  speech  on 
Ancona,  71 ;  speech  at  the  close  of  the  lie- 
form  debate,  87;  continued  efforts  for  a 
compromise.  90 ;  Government  defeated  in 
committee,  92;  resignation  of  Administra- 
tion of,  92;  resumes  office  with  his  col- 
leagues, 97 ;  remarks  on  the  members  of 
the  Administration  of,  117;  embarrass- 
ment of  Government,  157;  instance  of 
readiness  of,  178;  on  Portuguese  affairs, 
187 ;  compared  with  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton, 232;  changes  in  the  Administration 
of,  245,  247,  248;  situation  of,  in  the  crisis 
of  1834,  243 ;  letter  to  Lord  Ebrinjrton,  ib.  ; 
weakness  of  the  Government,  253;  resig- 
nation of,  2 1>1 ;  refuses  the  Privy  Seal,  266 ; 
desires  to  retire,  276 ;  dinner  to,  at  Edin- 
burgh, 286;  events  subsequent  to  retire- 
ment of,  294 ;  intrigue,  ib. ;  conservative 
spirit  of,  3S3;  audience  of  the  King,  885; 
dissatisfaction  of,  471. 

Grey,  Sir  Charles,  Governor  of  Jamaica, 
sworn  in  a  Privy  Councilor,  ii.  403. 

Grote,  George,  returned  for  the  City  of 
London,  ii.  381. 

Guizot,  Monsieur,  reported  resignation  of, 
i.  394 ;  eminence  of,  ii.  494. 

Gully,  Mr.,  account  of,  ii.  123;  returned  for 
Pontefract,  129. 

Gunpowder  Plot,  papers  relating  to,  i.  136. 


TTADDINGTOX,  Earl  of,  Lord-Lieutenant 

II    of  Ireland,  ii.  325. 

Ualford,  Sir  Henry,  report  on  the  cholera, 
i.  473. 

Hampden,  Dr.,  Regius  Professor  of  Divinity 
at  Oxford,  ii.  401,  402. 

Hanbury's  Brewery,  dinner  at,  i.  483. 

Happiness,  reflections  on,  ii.  421. 

Hardinge,  Eight  Hon.  Sir  Henry,  on  the 
prospects  of  the  Tory  Government,  ii.  313; 
on  the  King  and  Lord  Melbourne,  314. 

llarrowby,  Earl  of,  Lord  President,  i.  80; 
speech  on  Eeform,  ii.  17 ;  interview  with 
Lord  Grey,  33 ;  circular  to  the  Peers,  47, 
52;  interview  with  Lord  Grey,  62;  dis- 
cussions on  letter  of,  65 ;  letter  shown  to 
Lord  Grey,  67;  the  Times  on  the  letter 
of,  ib. ;  patriotic  conduct  of,  76 ;  declines 
to  vote  on  Schedule  A,  31 ;  character  of, 
214;  subscription  to  election  expenses,  326. 

Harrowby,  Countess  of,  ii.  214. 

Hart  well,  visit  to,  ii.  187. 

Harvey,  Whittle,  committee,  ii.  266;  speech 
of,  at  Southwark,  332. 

Harwich  election,  1835,  ii.  330. 

Health,  formation  of  a  board  of,  i.  488. 

Henry  II.,  King,  and  Thomas  a  Becket,  ii. 
2  SI. 

Henry  VIII.,  King,  coffin  of,  found  at  Wind- 
sor, i.  499. 

Heroert  Sydney,  Secretary  to  the  Board  of 
Control,  ii.  336. 

Herculaneum,  i.  297. 

"HernanV'i.  4SS. 


Herries,  Eight  Hon.  John  Charles,  scene  at 
Council,  i.  91 ;  discussions  on  appointment 
of.  93;  ill-will  of,  toward  his  colleagues, 
102 ;  Master  of  the  Mint,  105. 
Hertford,  Marchioness  of,  funeral  of,  ii.  238. 
Hess,  Captain,  ii.  115,  US. 
Heurteloup,  Baron,  before  the  Judicial  Com- 
mittee, ii.  454. 
Heythrop,  riot  at,  i.  421. 
Hill,  Mr.,  Irish  members'  squabble,  ii.  217. 
Hobhouse,  Eight  Hon.  Sir  John  Cam,  speech 
on  the  Eeform  Bill,  i.  461 ;  Secretary  of 
War,  ii.  48;  resigns   Irish   Secretaryship 
and  seat  for  Westminister,  156;  on  the 
state  of  affairs,  337 ;  Board  of  Control,  in 
Lord  Melbourne's  second  Administration, 
839. 

Holland,  the  King  of,  invades  Belgium,  i. 
50(5;  state  of.  ii.  12;  conduct  of  the  King 
of,  110;  the  King  refuses  to  give  up  Ant- 
werp, 116, 123 ;  obstinacy  of  the  King,  119 ; 
bankrupt  condition  of,  197. 
Holland,  Lord,  at  Panshanger,  i.  395;  Duchy 
of  Lancaster,  ii.  267;  anecdotes  related  by, 
282 ;  on  Eeform,  2S5 ;  on  Mr.  Canning,  ib. ; 
anecdotes,  457 ;  on  Mr.  Fox,  ib. ;  con- 
tempt for  the  Tory  party,  458. 
Holland,  Lady,  fancies  of,  ii.  125 ;  and  Spen- 
cer Perceval,  4£3. 

Holland  House,  dinner  at,  ii.20;  conversa- 
tion at,  112;    Allen  and  Macaulay,  113; 
sketch  of,  125 ;  conversation  at,  27S,  230 ; 
literary  criticisms,  282 ;  Lord  Melbourne's 
conversation,  ib. ;  dinner  at,  283 ;  news  of 
the  fall  of  Lord  Melbourne's  Administra- 
tion, 295 ;  party  spirit  at,  335. 
Holmes  boroughs,  i.  476. 
Hook,  Theodore,  improvisation  of,  ii.  272, 839; 

singing  of,  339. 
Home,  Sir    William,  Attorney-General,  ii. 

127 ;  and  Lord  Brougham,  227. 
Hortense,  Queen,  at  Frascati,  i.  259. 
Horton,  Wilmot,  lectures  at  the  Mechanics' 

Institute,  i.  439. 

Howe,  Earl,  dismissal  o£  ii.  14;  Queen's 
Chamberlain,  115;  and  Queen  Adelaide, 
125;  correspondence  about  the  Chamber- 
lainship,  132. 

Howick,  Viscount,  Under-Secretary,  i.  422; 
in  office,  ii.  883;  civility  of  the  King  to, 
889 ;  Secretary  of  War,  ib.  ;  acrimony  of, 
437 ;  interview  with  Spencer  Perceval,  453 ; 
on  the  position  of  parties,  478. 
Hudson,  Sir  James,  page  of  honor,  ii.  132. 
Hume,  John  Deacon,  Assistant-Secretary  to 

the  Board  of  Trade,  i.  189,  393. 
Hume,  Joseph,  extreme  Eadical  views  of,  ii. 
150 ;  speech  on  the  Orangemen,  464 ;  depu- 
tation to  Lord  Melbourne,  475. 
Hunchback,  The,  ii.  85. 
Hunt,  Henry,  speech  of,  i.  451;  speech  of, 

against  the  Eeform  Bill,  470. 
Huskisson,  Eight  Hon.  William,  President 
of  the  Board  of  Trade,  i.  80 ;  dispute  in  the 
Cabinet,  101;  joins  the  new  Government, 
103;  Colonial  Secretary,  105;  resignation 
of,  111 ;  Lord  Melbourne's  opinion  of,  Si)5; 
death  of,  396;  character  of,  3'J7;  funeral 
of;  899. 


INDEX. 


529 


THCENDIABI8M  in  the  country,  i,  42S. 

1  Ireland,  trials  in,  i.  203 ;  dissatisfaction  In, 
421 ;  unpopularity  of  Government  changes 
in,432;  state  of,  462, 403;  education  in,  U.C9, 
73 ;  tithes,  107 ;  Church  difficulties  in,  118. 

Irish  Church,  abuses  in,  ii.  177;  the  Irish 
Church  Bill  dangerous  to  the  Government, 
244;  differences  in  the  Cabinet,  240;  diffi- 
culties of  the  Irish  Church  question,  376, 
S-M  ;  opinions  of  Lord  Melbourne  on  the, 
401.  For  debates  on  the  Irish  Church 
Bill,  see  Lords,  House  of,  and  Commons, 
House  of. 

Irish  Tithe  Bill,  thrown  out,  ii.  270 ;  divisions 
on  the,  3*2 ;  conduct  of  the  Government, 
425 ;  difficulties  of,  472, 473 ;  abandonment 
of  the  Appropriation  Clause,  474. 

Irving,  Edward,  service  in  chapel,  ii.  204; 
the  unknown  tongues,  ib. ;  sermon  of, 
205 ;  Interview  with  Lord  Melbourne,  230. 

Irving,  Washington,  1.  211. 

I  stria,  Uuchesse  d',  beauty  of,  ii.  496. 

TACQUEMONTS  Letters,  ii.  2C8. 

tl  Jamaica,  insurrection  in,  ii.  65;  Mr. 
Greville,  Secretary  of  the  Island  of,  140 ; 
petition  to  the  King,  143 ;  affairs  of,  ib. ; 
anecdote  of  a  slave,  148;  opinion  of  Sir 
Willoughby  Cotton,  166;  office  of  Secretary 
to  the  Island  of,  threatened,  393,  400,  406 ; 
secured,  410. 

Jebb.  Judge,  charge  of,  at  O'Connell's  trial 
i.  449. 

Jeffrey,  Lord,  and  Professor  Leslie,  II.  207. 

Jersey,  Countess  of,  character  of,  i.  11 ;  party 
at  the  house  of,  410 ;  quarrel  with  Lord 
Durham,  458;  correspondence  with  Lord 
Brougham,  463. 

Jockey  Club,  dinner  given  by  the  King  to 
the,  1S23,  i.  118;  in  1829,  179. 

John  Hull,  the  newspaper,  i.  433. 

Johnson,  Dr..  anecdotes  of,  ii.  112. 

Johnstone,  Right  Hon.  Sir  Alexander,  sworn 
in  a  Privy  Councilor,  ii.  192,  195;  at  the 
Judicial  Committee,  277. 

Jones  Loyd,  Mr.,  ii.  831. 

Jones,  "Radical,"  interview  with  Lord 
Wharncliffo,  ii.  12. 

Judicial  Committee  of  the  Priw  Council,  Bill 
for  the  establishment  of  the,  Ii.  188;  meet- 
ing to  make  regulations  for  the,  199 ;  first 
Bitting  of  the,  202 ;  working  of  the,  845. 

KELLY,  Mrs,  adventures  of  her  daughter, 
i  322,  326;  case  before  the  Privy  Coun- 
cil, ii.  3II.S,  394,  898 ;  judgment,  406. 

Ecmble,  Charles,  and  his  family,  ii.  898. 

Kcmble,  Miss  Fanny,  i.  L'lU.  467 ;  tragedy  by, 
ii.  7-J  :  in  the  ••  Hunrlibark,"  85. 

Kempt,  Right  Hon.  Sir  James,  Master-Gen- 
eral of  the  Ordnance,  sworn  in  a  Privy 
Councilor,  i.  423. 

Kent,  H.  R.  H.  the  Duchess  of,  disputes  in  the 
Koval  Family,  i.  519;  and  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  ib. ;  the  Regency  Bill,  620 ; 
salutes  to,  ii.  72;  at  Burghley,  520;  quiir- 
rels  with  the  King,  4S1 ;  scene  at  Windsor, 

45  , 


ib. ;  answer  to  the  address  of  the  City  of 
London,  511 ;  squabble  with  the  King,  51 2. 

Kenyon,  Lord,  speech  at  Apsley  House, 
IL  9. 

Kinnaird,  Lord,  created  a  Baron  of  the  Uni- 
ted Kingdom,  i.  4<>. 

Klopstock,  Friedrich  Gottlieb,  anecdote  of. 
11.  281. 

Knatehbull,  Right  Hon.  Sir  Edward,  joins 
the  Peel  Government,  ii.  320,  822 ;  attack 
on,  364. 

Knighton,  Sir  William,  i.  61 ;  influence  with 
the  King,  83, 122;  behavior  of,  during  the 
King's  illness,  504. 


T  AFAYETTE,  Marquis  de,  resignation  of, 

lj     i.  440. 

La  Ferronavs,  M.  de,  French  Embassador  at 
Rome,  I.  261 ;  on  the  accession  of  the  Em- 
peror Nicholas,  817;  on  French  politics, 
818;  civility  of,  824,  on  French  affairs,  335, 
337. 

La  Granja,  revolution  of,  11.  482 ;  "  Lalla 
Rookh, '  at  Bridgewater  House,  ii.  47 1 . 

Lamb,  Sir  Frederick,  i.  436 ;  reported  letter 
to  the  King  of  France  from  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  it). 

Lambeth  Palace,  restoration  of,  i.  3S5. 

Lancashire  election,  1835,  ii.  340. 

Langdale,  Lord,  reply  to  Lord  Brougham,  ii. 
239;  declines  the  Solicitor-Generalship, 
291 ;  peerage,  450;  Master  of  the  Rolls,  il. 

Lansdowne.  Marquis  of,  Secretary  of  State 
for  the  Home  Department,  i.  fcO ;  Lord 
President,  412;  dinner  to  name  the  sher- 
iffs, 449;  on  the  Reform  Bill,  468;  and 
Lord  Brougham,  ii.  158;  Lord  President 
in  both  of  the  Administrations  of  Lord 
Melbourne,  267.  8-l». 

La  Ronciere,  case  of,  il.  344. 

Laval,  M.  de,  at  Apsley  House,  i.  363. 

Law,  Hlstorv  of  English,  ii.  2B8. 

Lawrence,  Sir  Thomas,  early  genius  of,  I. 
21 S;  death  of,  224;  character  of,  ib. ; 
funeral  of,  223 ;  engagement  of,  to  the 
Misses  Siddons,  il.  218. 

Leach,  Right  Hon.  Sir  John,  disappointed 
of  the  Woolsack,  i.  414 ;  in  the  case  of  Drax 
r».  Grosvenor.il.  164. 

Ldirli.  Colonel  George,  i.  518. 

I.i-iii>t-T,  Duke  of,  sworn  in  a  Privy  Coun- 
cilor, i.  4-11. 

Leltrim,  Earl  of,  created  a  Baron  of  tho 
United  Kini'doni.  i.484. 

Le  Marchant,l>enis,  at  Stoko.  ii.  l-s 

Lemon.  Robert,  F.  8.  A..  Deputy  Keeper  of 
the  State  Papers,  il.  207. 

Lcnnard,  John  Barrrtt.  rhiof  Clerk  of  tho 

Privy  Coiinrit  Office,  ii.  153. 
Leopold,  King,  i.  19  ;  desires  to  ascend  tho 
throne  of  Greece,  225;  anxiety  to 
the  throne  of  Belgium.    1-7:  a>-. •,  j>t<  th  • 
throne  of  Belgium,  4'.rj:   .tarts   i. 
glum,  499 ;  proposes  to  the  Princess  Louise 
of  France,  ^b.;  In  Belgium,  507;  want  of 
iviiiiWcnco  In.  ib.  f  cold  reception  of,  nt 
Windsor,  ii.  l-i'. 
Lctic •hteiibcrg.  Duke  of,  at  Havre,  il.  199 


530 


INDEX. 


marriage  of,  ib. ;  letter  to  Lord  Palmcr- 
ston,  1%  ;  arrival  of,  381. 

Leveson,  Loi-d  Francis,  see  Ellesmere,  Earl 
of. 

Levee,  ii.  852. 

Lewis,  Matthew  Gregory  ("Monk"  Lewis), 
journals  and  voyages  to  the  West  Indies, 
ii.  1(>8;  anecdote  of,  170;  agreement  with 
Mr  Murray  for  the  Journal.  176. 

I.ichfield  Earl  of,  at  Eunton,  ii.  213. 

Lichfield  Cathedral  ii.  449. 

Lieven,  Prince,  recalled,  ii.  244. 

Lieven,  Princess,  character  of,  i.  18;  attacks 
Lord  Grey,  ii.  64;  on  the  Belgian  ques- 
tion, 6S  ;  conversation  with,  117;  renews 
her  friendship  with  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton, 119;  grievances  of,  142;  interference 
of,  147;  diplomatic  difficulties,  14C ;  recep- 
tion of,  at  St.  Petersburg,  189 ;  position  of, 
in  Paris,  493. 

Littleton,  Eight  Hon.  Edward,  i.  9 ;  proposed 
by  Lord  Althorp  as  Speaker,  ii.  126;  Sec- 
retary for  Ireland,  159 ;  and  O'Connell, 
255 ;  instrumental  in  breaking  up  the 
Government,  257 ;  political  career  of,  25S ; 
letter  to  Lord  Wellesley,  258,  2C4;  in  com- 
munication with  O'Connell,  253, 264;  Irish 
Secretary,  267. 

Liverpool,  Earl  of,  and  the  King,  i.  22 ;  para- 
lytic seizure,  76;  transactions  before  the 
close  of  Administration  of,  503. 

Liverpool,  opening  of  the  railroad,  i.  393, 335 ; 
bribery  at  election,  423. 

Lobau,  Marshal,  Commandant  -  Gdne'raL  i. 
440. 

Lodge,  the  Royal,  entertainments  at,  i.  83. 

London,  speech  of  Bishop  of,  ii.  504 ;  Uni- 
versity Charter,  23S,  239,  873 ;  meeting  of 
Committee  of  Council  on,  894,  3'J5. 

Londonderry.  Marquis  of,  death  of,  i.  43; 
character  of,  44 ;  funeral  of,  55. 

Londonderry,  Marquis  of,  motion  on  Bel- 
gium, i.  509;  attacks  Lord  Plunket,  ii. 
63 ;  debate  on  appointment  of,  to  St.  Pe- 
tersburg, 364;  opinion  of  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  365 :  speech  of,  366 ;  resigna- 
tion of,  867. 

Long,  St.  John,  trial  of,  i.  428. 

Lords,  House  of,  debate  of  Royal  Dukes,  i. 
149;  debate  on  Catholic  Belief  Bill,  168; 
division  on  Catholic  Eelief  Bill,  ib.;  debate 
of  affairs  in  Portugal.  236 ;  debate  on  the 
Methuen  Treaty,  457  ;  speech  of  Lord 
Brougham,  ib. ;  violent  scene  in  the,  472 ; 
debate  on  Lord  Londonderry's  motion, 
509;  prospects  of  the  Eeform  Bill,  522; 
First  Eeforin  Bill  thrown  out.  ii.  14; 
attack  on  the  Bishops,  16;  new  Peers,  87; 
measures  for  carrying  the  second  reading 
of  the  Second  Eeform  Bill,  42, 43 ;  division 
on  the  Belgian  question,  45 ;  Eeform  Bill, 
72 ;  Irish  education,  ib.  ;  debates  on 
second  reading  of  the  Eeform  Bill,  74.  86 ; 
list  of  proposed  new  Peers,  83;  Eeform 
Bill  carried,  86 ;  in  Committee  on  the  Ee- 
form Bill,  90;  debate  on  conduct  of  the 
Tory  party,  100;  Eusso-Dutch  Loan,  111 ; 
Government  beaten  on  Portuguese  ques- 


tion, 168;  powerlcssness  of,  ib. ;  Local 
Courts  Bill,  163,  169  ;  debate  on  Local 
Courts  Bill.  175;  Government  defeated, 
ib.;  Irish  Church  Bill,  176;  Bill  for  the 
observance  of  the  Sabbath,  241 ;  debate  on 
the  Irish  Church  Bill,  250 ;  Poor  Law  Bill, 
267;  debate  on  Irish  Tithe  Bill  270;  con- 
duct of  the  House,  876;  debate  on  Cor- 
poration Bill.  415.41s;  position  of  the 
House.  417.419;  Irish  Tithe  Bill  t'irown 
up.  422;  conflict  with  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, ib. ;  state  of  the  House,  433;  de- 
bate on  Corporation  Bill,  434, 471 ;  hostility 
to  the  House  of  Commons,  477 ;  conduct 
of  the  House,  478,  479. 

Louis  XVIIL,  King,  memoirs  of,  ii.  102; 
favorites  of,  ib. ;  at  Hartwell,  137. 

Louis  Philippe,  King,  accession  of,  i.  878; 
conduct  of,  8SO ;  tranquilizes  Paris,  440  ; 
speech  of,  500 ;  averse  to  French  attack  on 
Antwerp,  ii.  127 ;  behavior  of,  to  the  Queen 
of  Portugal,  197 ;  power  of,  in  the  Cham- 
ber, 291  ;  courage  of,  415 ;  conduct  toward 
Spain,  445,  478,  482 ;  at  the  Tuileries,  497; 
dislike  to  the  Duke  de  Broglie.  500. 

Louise,  H.  E.  H.  Princess,  daughter  of  King 
Louis  Philippe,  i.  499. 

Louis,  Baron,  reported  resignation  of,  i.  394. 

Luckner,  General,  ii.  23. 

Lushington,  Dr.,  speech  of,  in  the  appeal  of 
Swift  vs.  Kelly,  ii.  167. 

Lushington,  Sir  Henry,  and  "  Monk  "  Lewis, 
ii.  171. 

Luttrell,  Henry,  character  of,  i.  9 ;  "  Advice 
to  Julia,"  28. 

Lyndhurst,  Lord,  Lord  High  Chancellor,  i. 
80. 105;  quarrel  with  the  Duke  of  Cum- 
berland, 18S ;  dissatisfaction  at  Lord 
Brougham's  being  raised  to  the  Woolsack, 
414;  reported  appointment  to  be  Lord 
Chief  Baron,  432 ;  opinion  of  the  Govern- 
ment, 486 ;  Lord  Chief  Baron.  447 ;  politi- 
cal position  of.  ib. ;  anecdote  of  a  trial,  ib.; 
retort  to  the  Duke  of  Eichmond,  475 ;  on 
the  Government,  479 ;  on  Sir  Eobert  Peel, 
ib. ;  on  Lord  Brougham,  ib.  ;  sent  for  by 
the  King,  ii.  92 ;  efforts  to  form  a  Tory 
Government,  120 ;  judgment  in  Small  vs. 
Attwood,  124 ;  account  of  the  efforts  of  the 
Tory  party  to  form  a  Government,  138 ; 
forgets  the  message  of  the  King  to  Lord 
Grey,  211;  account  of  transactions  between 
the  King  and  Lord  Melbourne,  29*;  policy 
of,  299;  on  Lord  Brougham,  300;  Lord 
High  Chancellor,  803 ;  on  the  Administra- 
tion of  Sir  Eobert  Peel,  322 ;  conduct  on 
the  Corporation  Bill,  415,  420 ;  on  the  pros- 
pects of  the  session,  454 ;  on  the  business 
of  the  House  of  Lords,  455;  speech  in 
vindication  of  conduct,  480;  in  Paris,  493 ; 
insult  offered  to,  in  House  of  Commons, 
502;  capacity  of,  503;  violent  speech  of, 
542. 

Lyndhurst,  Lady,  insulted  by  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  i.  188 ;  conversation  with, 
436. 

Lynn  Regis  election,  ii.  316,  817,  320,  826. 

Lyons,  riots  at,  ii.  28. 


INDEX. 


531 


MACAO,  verses  on,  i.  9. 10. 
M:ic:iul:iy.  Thoinna  Babington,  speech- 
es on  the  Reform  Bill,  i.  40 L;  ii.  11 ;  elo- 
quence of,  15;  at  Holland  House,  00;  ap- 
pearance of.  51 ;  character  of,  115;  on  the 
Coercion  Bill,  152;  conversation  of,  199; 
memory  of,  458;  eloquence  of,  compared 
to  Lord  Brougham,  46U ;  inscription  on 
monument  erected  in  honor  of  Lord  Wil- 
liam Bentinclc,  ib. 

Macaulay.  Zachary,  ii.  453. 

Mackintosh,  Right  Hon.  Sir  James,  speech 
of,  on  criminal  laws,  i.  IT;  conversation  of, 
205:  death  of,  Ii.  104;  "History  of  Eng- 
land," 2S9;  remarks  on  life  of,  421,  439; 
compared  with  Burke,  440 ;  life  of,  441 ; 
abilities  of,  ib. ;  religious  belief  of,  447. 

Maggiore,  Lago,  i.  808. 

Maidstone,  state  of  the  borough,  ii.  323. 

Maii.  Monstenore,  i.  812,  319. 

Malibran,  Maria  Felicita,  in  tho  "Sonnam- 
bula,"  ii.  179. 

Mallet,  conspiracy  of,  i.  515. 

Malt  Tax,  the,  Government  defeated  on,  ii. 
156. 

Manners  Button,  Sir  Charles,  O.  C.  B.,  pro- 
posed as  Premier,  ii.  120 ;  conduct  of,  133 ; 
reappointed  Speaker,  135;  Knight  of  the 
Bath.  195;  the  Speakership,  345,  see  Can- 
terbury, Lord. 

Mansfield,  Lord,  speech  against  the  Govern- 
ment, i.  472 ;  audience  of  the  King,  474 ; 
meeting  of  Peers,  487. 

Mansion  House,  the  dinner  at,  ii.  323. 

Marengo.  battle-field  of,  i.  247. 

Maria.  Donna,  Queen  of  Portugal,  at  a 
child's  ball,  i.  177;  proposals  of  marriage 
for,  ii.  196;  at  Windsor,  ib. ;  picture  of, 
337. 

Marie  Ame"lie,  Queen,  ii.  497. 

Marmont,  Marshal,  at  Lady  GlengalPs,  1. 
:Wi;  conversation  with,  ib. ;  revolution  of 
[880.  ::s7;  at  Woohrtch,  389;  dinner  at 
Lord  Dudley's,  ib. 

Matteis,  trial  of,  i.  286,  290. 

Matuscewitz.  Russian  Embassador  Extraor- 
dinary, i.  135:  on  affairs  in  Europe.  506; 
conduct  of,  119 ;  conversation  with.  •!;(.». 

Maule,  Mr.  Justice,  at  dinner  at  the  Athe- 
naeum, i.  442. 

Meeting  of  moderate  men,  origin  of  the 
"  Derby  Dilly,"  ii.  853. 

Meiningen,  chateau  of,  model  of  the,  ii.  275 ; 
the  Queen  revisits  the.  277. 

Melbourne,  Viscount,  Homo  Secretary,  1. 
412;  efficiency  of,  in  office,  482;  negotia- 
tion!) with,  445:  dissatisfaction  of,  ii.  60; 
on  the  proposed  new  Peers,  58;  on  the 
Reform  Bill,  7^ ;  on  the  members  of  Lord 
Grey's  Administration,  117;  sent  for  by 
the  'King,  2.Y7 ;  forms  an  Administration, 
202;  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  and  Mr.  Stanley,  . 
ministration  of,  207;  anecdote  of.  -7 >;  in- 
formation of.  281 ;  literary  conversation  of, 
2s2;  on  Benthamites,  2SS;  theological 
reading  of,  ib.;  fall  of  Government  of, 
292;  dismissal  of,  293:  details  of  fall  of 
Government,  296;  account  of  dismissal, 


203,  314;  witlj  the  King,  310,  814;  with 
hia  colleagues,  810-312;  dispute  with 
Lord  Duncannon,  312 ;  speeches  at  Derby, 
813;  weakness  of,  ib.;  second  Adminis- 
tration formed,  837 ;  composition  of,  38J ; 
theological  reading  of.  447 ;  appointment 
of  Dr.  Hampden,  463;  action  against, 
brought  by  the  Hon.  Mr.  Norton.  4r,.i ;  n- 
sult  of  the  trial,  470 ;  difficulties  of  the 
Government,  473. 

Melville,  Viscount,  President  of  tho  India 
Board,  i.  100. 

Mendizabal,  ability  of,  ii.  445;  dismissal  of, 
470. 

Messiah,  the  oratorio  of  the,  performed  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  ii.  258. 

Mcthuen,  Paul,  M.  P.,  on  supporting  the 
Government,  il.  226;  retort  of  O'Connell 
to,  ib. 

Metternieh.  Princess,  anecdote  of,  il.  380. 

Mexico,  failure  of  the  Spanish  expedition 
against,  i.  212. 

MeyneU,  Mr.,  retires  from  the  Lord  Cham- 
berlain's department,  i.  470. 

Mezzofantl,  i.  848. 

Middlesex  election,  1S3.5, 11.  839. 

Mlddleton,  party  at,  i.  11. 

Miguel,  Dom,  ii.  108,  111,  117:  attacks  Opor 
to.  119;  fleet  captured  bv  Captain  Napier, 
177;  anecdote  of,  192;  blunders  of,  -J4'J. 

Milan,  i.  3.VJ. 

Mill.  Joan  Stuart,  at  breakfast  given  by  Mr. 
Henry  Taylor,  i.  406. 

Milton,  Viscount,  at  a  meeting  at  Lord  Al- 
thorp's,  i.  4J.»4. 

Mirabeau,  Count  dc,  Talleyrand's  account 
of.  ii.  170. 

Miraflores,  Count  dc.  Spanish  Embassador 
in  London,  ii.  25i:  doubtful  compliment  to 
Madame  do  Laeven,  ///. 

Mola  di  Gaeta,  i.  305;  Cicero's  villa.  318. 

Mole.  M.,  Prime  Minister  of  France,  ii.  494; 
abilities  of,  495. 

Montalivet,  case  of  tho  French  refugee,  11. 
503. 

Monti,  Vinccnzo.  anecdote  of,  1.  515. 

Moore,  Thomas,  i.  2'tt,  2ni;  conversation  of, 
206;  anecdotes,  210;  Irish  patriotism  of, 
4;W;  opinions  on  Reform,  47ii;  copy  of 
"Lord  Ed  ward  Fitzgerald,"  500;  satire  on 
Dr.  Bowring,  il.  29 ;  compared  with  Rog- 
ers, 447;  nuarrcl  with  O'Connell,  466. 

Morning  J/erald,  the,  moderate  Tory  or- 
gan, Ii.  71. 

Mornington,  Countess  of,  death  of.  1.  522. 

Morpeth,  Viscount.  Irish  Secretary,  11.  833 ; 
speech  on  Irish  Tithe  Hill.  io. 

M.-I.-V.  Sir  Oswald,  meeting  of  moderate 
men.  ii.  -.•:.-. 

Mulirrave,  Earl  of.  in  Jamaica,  II.  U2;  re- 
fuses the  omoo  of  Postmaster-General, 
247;  Lord  Privy  Seal,  267;  capability  of; 

Municipal  Corporation  Bill,  ii.  396,  41 1.  11-, 
policy  of  Tory  Peers  on  the.  4;:!;  prov 
pecU  of  the,  422 :  efforts  of  tho,  435,  136 ; 
the  Bill  carried,  436. 

Munster,  Earl  of,  employed  by  the  King,  L 
861;  raised  to  the  Peerage,  47S;  Lieu  ten- 


532 


INDEX. 


ant  of  the  Tower,  500 ;  sworn  in  a  Privy 

Councilor,  ii.  143. 
Murat,  Achilla,  i.  455. 
Murray,  Dr.,  Kornan  Catholic  Archbishop  of 

Dublin,  i.  124. 
Murray,  Sir  George,  Secretary  of  State  for 

the  Colonial  Department,  i.  305. 
Murray,  Lady  Augusta,  marriage  of,  i.  522. 
Mnaard  a  ball,  ii.  493. 


NAMIK  Pasha,  Turkish  Embassador,  ii. 
181. 

Napier,  Sir  "William,   on  the  state  of  the 
country,  i.  44S ;  "  History  of  the  Peninsu- 
lar War,"  ii.  402. 
Napier,  Captain  Charles,  captures  Dom  Mi- 

fuel's  fleet,  ii.  17T ;  cause  of  capture  of  a 
rench  squadron,  178:  anecdote  of,  199. 

Naples,  i.  288;  sight-seeing  at,  284;  Court 
of  Justice,  ib. ;  manuscripts,  ib. ;  cere- 
mony of  taking  the  veil,  288;  sights  of, 
294,  803 ;  miracle  of  the  blood  of  San  Gen- 
naro,  301,  302,  310 ;  excursions  to  Astroni, 
304 ;  lines  on  leaving,  307. 

Navarino,  battle  of,  i.  96, 138. 

Nemours,  H.  K.  H.  Due  de,  accompanies 
King  Louia  Philippe,  i.  440;  nomination 
to  the  throne  of  Belgium  declined,  441 ;  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  ii.  432 ;  at  Don- 
caster,  440. 

Newmarket,  political  negotiations  at,  ii.  89. 

Nicholas,  Emperor,  accession  of,  i.  317  ;  re- 
ception of  strangers,  ii.  190;  on  the  change 
of  Government  in  England,  351 ;  speech 
at  Warsaw,  413;  dislike  to  King  Louis 
Philippe,  501 ;  qualities  of,  4S8. 

"  Norma,"  the  opera  of,  ii.  171. 

North,  Lord,  Letters  of  George  III.  to,  ii. 
280 ;  anecdote  of,  283. 

Northamptonshire  election,  ii.  448. 

Northumberland,  Duke  of,  Lord-Lieutenant 
of  Ireland,  i.  134. 

Northumberland,  Duchess  of,  resigns  her 
office  of  governess  to  Princess  Victoria,  ii. 
512. 

Norton,  Hon.  Mr.,  action  brought  against 
Lord  Melbourne,  ii.  469 ;  result  of  the 
trial,  470. 


OAKS,  The.  ii,  161 ;  party  at,  ib. 
Oatlands,  the  residence  of  the  Duke 
of  York,  i.  4 ;  weekly  parties  at,  5,  7. 
O'Connell,  Daniel,  character  of,  i.  123;  at 
dinner,  172;  attempts  to  take  his  seat, 
176;  elected  for  Clare,  1829,  189;  insult 
to,  421;  in  Ireland,  438;  opposition  to 
Lord  Anglesey,  439 ;  abilities  of,  441 ;  vio- 
lence of,  447 ;  arrest  of,  448 ;  trial  of,  449 ; 
position  of,  441 ;  pleads  guilty,  453 ;  oppo- 
sition to  Lord  Duncannon  in  Kilkenny, 
454 ;  explanation  of,  461 :  dread  of  cholera, 
ii.  105;  member  for  Ireland,  142;  violent 
speech  at  the  Trades'  Union,  150,  151 ;  at- 
tack on  Baron  Smith,  220 ;  retort  to  Mr. 
Methuen,  226;  and  the  Coercion  Bill,  258, 
264 ;  in  correspondence  with  Mr.  Littleton, 
ib.;  union  with  the  Whig  party,  3"^; 


power  of,  3SD ;  affair  with  Lord  Alvanloy. 
390 ;  in  Scotland,  441 ;  proposed  expulsion 
from  Brookes's  club,  444 ;  quarrel  with 
Moore,  466 ;  Carlo w  election,  4o7. 

O'Connell,  Morgan,  duel  with  Lord  Alvanley, 
ii.  390. 

Old  Bailey,  trials  at,  i.  173,  428. 

Opera  House,  the  English,  burnt,  i.  235. 

Orange,  Prince  of,  dinner  to  the,  i.  40-1,'  re- 
turns to  Holland,  470. 

Orange.  Princess  of,  robbery  of  jewels  of,  i. 
227. 

Orange  Lodge,  association  of,  ii.  464. 

Orangemen,  meeting  of,  ii.  275. 

Orleans,  H.  E.  H.  Duke  of,  arrival  of,  i.  177; 
sent  to  Lyons,  ii.  28;  in  England,  160; 
project  of  marriage  at  Vienna,  488;  ques- 
tion of  marriage  of,  500. 

Orloff,  Count,  arrival  of,  ii.  78 ;  delay  in  rati- 
fication of  the  Belgian  Treaty,  85. 

Osterlcy,  party  at,  i.  516. 


PADUA,  i.  350. 
Pfestum,  i.  2S3. 

Palmella,  Duke  of,  arrival  of,  in  London,  ii. 
111. 

Palmerston,  Viscount,  speech  on  the  Portu- 
guese question,  i.  179;  Foreign  Secretary, 
412;  suggests  a  compromise  on  the  Ke- 
form  Bill,  ii.  22 ;  on  proposed  new  Peers, 
5S;  on  prospects  of  the  Reform  Bill,  GO; 
business  habits  of,  187;  unpopularity  of, 
218 ;  speech  on  the  Turkish  question,  231 ; 
Foreign  Secretary  in  Lord  Melbourne's 
Administration,  267;  unpopularity  with 
the  corps  diplomatique,  286;  loses  his 
election  in  Hampshire,  339;  as  a  man  of 
business,  350;  Foreign  Secretary,  389; 
abilities  of,  478. 

Panic,  the,  1S25,  i.  65;  on  the  Stock  Ex- 
change, 1830,  392. 

Panshanger,  parties  at,  i.  395 ;  ii.  30. 

Paris,  society  at,  iu  1830,  i.  240 ;  in  July,  355 ; 
Marshal  Marmonfs  account  of  events  at, 
in  1830,  387;  alarm  felt  in,  440;  change  of 
Ministry,  470;  in  1837,  ii.  493;  society  at, 
493,  499 ;  sight-seeing.  495,  497. 

Park,  Judge,  anecdotes  of,  i.  434;  ii.  489. 

Parke,  Bight  Hon.  Sir  James,  sworn  in  a 
Privy  Councilor,  ii.  187;  Baron  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, 230;  in  the  ap'peal  of  Swift  vs. 
Kelly,  400. 

Parliament,  meeting  of,  1830,  i.  401 ;  meeting 
of,  1831,  440;  dissolution  of,  1831,  473; 
opening  of,  487 ;  in  1831,  ii.  32 ;  dissolution 
of,  1832,  128;  opening  of,  1833, 142;  proro- 
gation of,  1833, 193 ;  opening  of,  1834,  217; 
dissolution  of,  827;  temporary  buildings 
for  Houses  of,  346;  opening  of,  358;  in 
1S36,  455 ;  prorogation  of,  1836,  479. 

Parnell,  Sir  Henry,  turned  out  of  office,  ii.  48. 

Parsons,  anecdotes  of,  i.  448. 

1'askiewitch,  Marshal,  in  quarantine,  i.  405. 

Pattison.  James,  returned  to  Parliament  for 
the  City  of  London,  ii.  331. 

Pavilion,  The,  dinner  at,  i.  41 ;  completion 
of,  45. 

Pease,  Mr.,  and  O'Dwyer,  ii.  C20. 


INDEX. 


533 


Pedro,  Dom,  expedition  of,  ii.  109,  111 ;  pro- 
posal to  combine  with  Spain,  231 ;  in  pos- 
session of  Portugal,  249. 

Peel,  Eight  Hon.  Sir  Robert.  Home  Secre- 
tary, i.  105;  speeches  on  Catholic  Relief 
Bill.  141. 155;  Oxford  University  election, 
l  •<•_".•.  150;  defeated,  151;  political  pros- 
pects of,  437.  438 ;  power  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  455 ;  speech  on  the  Reform  Bill, 
401  ;  inactivity  of,  on  the  Reform  Bill,  40T, 
470;  complaints  of  policy  of,  476;  conduct 
of,  493 ;  reserve  of,  494,  504 ;  excellence  in 
debate,  ii  11 ;  answer  to  Lord  Harrowby, 
52.  53;  policy  of,  67;  speech  on  Irish 
Tithes,  71 ;  invited  to  form  a  Government, 
92;  refuses  to  take  office,  95;  defense  of 
conduct,  101 ;  conduct  during  the  Tory 
efforts  to  form  u  Government,  122,  123; 
conduct  compared  with  that  of  the  Duke 
of  Wellington,  122;  character  of,  144;  on 
political  unions,  179;  in  society,  199;  posi- 
tion of,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  224 ; 
collection  of  pictures,  229;  great  dinner 
given  by,  232;  speech  on  admission  of 
Dissenters  to  the  University,  234;  policy 
of  the  Administration  of,  SOS ;  friendship 
with  the  Duke  of  Wellington  renewed, 
313;  arrival  of,  from  the  Continent,  319; 
formation  of  Administration,  322;  mani- 
festo to  the  country,  323 ;  prospects  of  the 
Ministry,  ib. ;  qualities  of,  882 ;  Toryism 
of  Administration  of,  336 ;  false  position  of, 
348;  prospects  of  Government,  854,  872, 
373 ;  talents  of,  362 ;  conduct  to  his  adher- 
ents, 367,  379;  courage  of,  413 ;  impending 
resignation  of,  378 ;  Government  defeated, 
382 ;  resignation  of  Administration  of,  1835, 
832,  8a3;  speech  on  Corporation  Reform, 
396;  on  Irish  Church  Bill,  411;  relations 
with  Lord  John  Russell,  412 ;  seclusion  of, 
425 ;  speech  on  Corporation  Reform,  430 ; 
consideration  for  Lord  Stanley,  456 ;  con- 
duct with  regard  to  the  Corporation  Bill, 
461 ;  position  of,  476 ;  on  the  beginning  of 
the  new  reign,  514. 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  sen.,  account  of.  1.  463. 

}\  il.  Ki>,'ht  Hon.  Jonathan,  ii.  878. 

IVmberton,  Thomas,  il.  110;  in  the  appeal 
of  Swift  vs.  Kelly,  899,  403. 

Pembroke,  Earl  of,  i.  212. 

Pension  List,  see  Commons,  House  of. 

Pepys.  Right  Hon.  Sir  Christopher,  Master  of 
the  Rolls,  ii.  450.  See  Cottenham,  Lord. 

Perceval,  Spencer,  discourse  of.  ii.  2o»;  th<- 
Unknown  Tongue,  ib. ;  on  the  condition 
of  the  Church,  275;  apostolic  mission  to 
the  members  of  the  Government,  458 ;  at 
Holland  House,  ib.;  apostolic  mission  of, 
4i>o. 

Perier.  Caslmir,  momentary  resignation  of, 
i.  506;  attacked  by  cholera,  il.  b7 ;  death 
of,  104. 

Persian  Embassador,  the,  quarrel  of,  with 
the  Regent,  i.  Is. 

Perth  election,  1835,  ii.  839. 

Petworth  House  and  pictures,  11. 12C  ;  fiHc  at, 
242. 

Peyronnet,  Comte  de,  \.  885. 

Phillpotts,  see  Exeter,  Bishop  tt 


Pisa,  i.  2.U 

Pitt,  Right  Hon.  'William,  described  by  Tal- 
leyrand, il.  187 ;  anecdotes  of.  282. 

Plunkft,  Lord.  Lord  Chancellor  in  Ireland, 
i.  432;  anecdote  of, 447;  at  Stoke,  ii.  las; 
Deanery  of  Down,  280. 

Poland,  contest  in,  i.  491. 

Polignac,  Prince  Jules  de,  head  of  the  Ad- 
ministration in  France;  Administration 
of,  i.  885 ;  behavior  of,  8S1 ;  letter  to  M.  de 
Mole,  3S5;  exasperation  against,  889. 

Pompeii,  i.  288;  excavations  at,  292. 

Ponsonby,  Viscount,  Minister  at  Xaples,  i. 
489;  letters  of,  503;  conduct  of.  as  Em- 
bassador at  Constantinople,  ii.  517. 

Pope,  the,  audience  of  Pius  VIII..  i.  825; 
Irish  appointments  of  the,  ii.  401.  See 
Rome. 

Portfolio,  the,  it  450. 

Portland,  Duke  of,  Lord  Privy  Seal, !.  SO. 

Portugal,  ships  seized  by  the  French,  i.  511, 
513;  affairs  in,  ii.  191/237;  bankrupt  state 
of,  249. 

Powell,  Mr.,  1.  401. 

Pozzo  di  Borgo,  Count,  il.  188 ;  views  of,  on 
the  state  of  Europe,  326;  Russian  Embas- 
sador in  London,  348,  344. 

Praed,  Winthrop  Mackworth,  first  speech  of, 
i.  454 ;  First  Secretary  to  the  Board  of 
Control,  ii.  837. 

Pratollno,  i.  843. 

Prayer,  form  of,  on  account  of  the  disturbed 
state  of  the  kingdom,  i.  440.  • 

Proclamation  against  rioters,  i.  418. 


QUAKERS',  the,  address  to  King  William 
IV.,  i.  370. 

Quarterly  Review,  The,  attacks  Lord  Har- 
rowby, 11.  71,  72 ;  pamphlet  in  answer  to 
article,  72. 
Quintus  Curtlus,  ii.  2S1. 


RACING,  remarks  on,  il.  160;  anecdote, 
161. 

Redesdale,  Lord,  letter  of,  II.  71. 

Reform,  plan  of,  i.  445;  remarks  on,  ii.  18; 
negotiations  concerning,  25.  27,  28. 

Reform  Bill,  the,  bid  before  the  King,  1. 449 ; 
excitement  concerning,  462 ;  carried  by 
one  vote,  469;  alterations  In,  470;  Govern- 
ment defeated,  471 ;  remarks  on,  509 ;  at- 
titude of  the  press,  522 ;  prospects  of,  il. 
10;  negotiations  for  a  compromise,  21; 
altered  tone  of  the  press,  88 :  meeting  of 
Peers  in  Downing  Street,  ib.;  measures 
for  carrying  the  second  reading  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  42-44,  46;  continued 
efforts  to  compromise,  70;  finally  passed 
In  the  House  of  Commons,  72;  continued 
tiscusslons  on,  75;  dllliciilty  with  Sched- 
ule A.  hi ;  carried  In  the  House  of  Lords, 
86 ;  in  committee,  90 ;  posses  through  com- 
mittee, 101 ;  results  or.  198,  884.  >'«r  •!•  - 
bates  on,  tee  Lords,  House  of,  and  Com- 
mons, House  of. 

T-elchttadt,  Duke  of,  and  Marshal  Marmont 
11.190. 


534 


INDEX. 


Beis-Effendi,  the,  1. 133. 
'  Renfrewshire  election,  ii.  503. 

Eice,  Eight  Hon.  Thomas  Spring.  Colonial 
Secretary,  ii.  245,  '.'67  ;  difficulties  with, 
337 ;  Chancellor  of  tho  Exchequer,  3M) ; 
incapacity  of,  as  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, 492. 

Richmond,  Duko  of,  and  King  George  III. 
at  a  naval  review,  ii.  2SO. 

Richmond,  Duke  of,  summary  of  character 
of,  i.  169;  Postmaster-General,  412;  re- 
fuses the  appointment  of  Master  of  the 
Horse,  413;  difficulties  with  his  laborers, 
414;  at  Goodwood,  512;  on  Reform,  ii. 
21 ;  character  of,  182;  resignation  of,  245. 

Riots,  in  London,  1830,  i.  403;  among  the 
farm-laborers,  414;  proclamation  against, 
413 ;  in  the  country,  421. 

Eipon,  Earl  of,  Lord  Privy  Seal,  1.  412 ;  res- 
ignation of,  ii.  245.  See  Goderich,  Vis- 
count. 

Pvobarts,  Mr.,  dinner  given  by,  ii.  823. 

Robinson,  Eight  Hon.  Frederick  John,  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer,  i.  66.  See  Gode- 
rich, Viscount. 

Rochester  election,  1835,  ii.  325. 

Eoden,  Earl  of,  declines  the  office  of  Lord 
Steward,  ii.  823,  325. 

Bogers,  Samuel,  breakfast  given  by,  i.  484 ; 
compared  with  Moore,  ii.  447. 

Rolle,  Lord,  remark  to  Lord  Brougham,  ii. 
262. 

Eome,  1.  257,  258;  St.  Peter's,  253,  273; 
sight-seeing,  261,  265,  274;  the  Sistine 
Chapel,  263;  the  cardinals,  ib.;  a  cardinal 
lying  in  state,  265 ;  Pompey's  statue,  266 ; 
Temple  of  Bacchus,  ib.;  the  Catacombs, 
267 ;  the  Pope's  blessing,  269,  276 ;  Holy 
Week  observances,  270 ;  tho  Grand  Peni- 
tentiary, 2TO,  2T2;  washing  of  pilgrims' 
feet,  273 ;  supper  to  pilgrims,  ib. ;  Protes- 
tant burial-ground,  274;  St.  Peter's  illu- 
minated, 276 ;  excavations,  278 ;  sight- 
seeing, 280,  307;  aqueducts,  308 ;  the  Scala 
Santa,  309;  St.  Peter's,  311;  Library  of 
the  Vatican,  312;  votive  offering  of  a 
horseshoe,  813,  316;  Columbaria,  318; 
saints,  328;  the  Flagellants,  830 ;  relations 
with  Protestant  countries,  833 ;  the  Coli- 
seum, 337 ;  story  of  a  thief,  ib. ;  convent 
of  S3.  Giovanni  e  Paolo,  333 ;  sight-seeing, 
839. 

Rosslyn,  Earl  of.  Lord  Privy  Seal,  1.  179; 
Lord  President  of  the  Council,  ii.  322;  din- 
ner for  selecting  the  Sheriffs,  843. 

Eonssin,  Admiral,  at  Constantinople,  ii.  155. 

Rovigo,  the  Duke  de,  at  Eome,  i.  276. 

Rundell,  Mr.,  fortune  of,  will  of,  i.  76. 

Runton  Abbey,  shooting  at,  ii.  213 ;  murder 
in  the  neighborhood,  ib. 

Eussell,  Eight  Hon.  Lord  John,  introduces 
the  Reform  Bill,  i.  459 ;  seat  in  the  Cabi- 
net, 4S4 ;  brings  in  his  Bill,  4S9 ;  letter  to 
Attwood,  ii.  16, 17;  willing  to  compromise, 
118;  brings  on  the  second  Eeform  Bill; 
Paymaster  of  the  Forces,  267 ;  objected  to 
by  the  King  as  leader  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  808;  speech  at  Totness,  817; 
on  the  Speakership,  846;  on  Church  Ee- 


form, 347;  first  speech  as  leader  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  353 ;  letter  of,  on  the 
Speakership,  857 ;  as  leader  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  360 :  marriage  of,  3i6 ;  Home 
Secretary  in  Lord  Melbourne's  second 
Administration,  890 ;  introduction  of  Cor- 
poration Eeform,  336;  relations  with  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  412;  course  to  be  pursued 
on  the  Corporation  Bill,  429,  435 ;  speech 
on  the  Orangemen,  465;  moderation  of, 
471 ;  meeting  at  the  Foreign  Office,  475, 
477 ;  intention  of  the  Government  to  pro- 
ceed with  their  Bills,  503 ;  speech  in  an- 
swer to  Roebuck,  513. 

Russia,  state  of,  1829,  i.  184 ;  intrigues  of,  ii. 
142  ;  diplomatic  relations  with,  143 ;  com- 
bines with  Turkey  against  Egypt,  154; 
fleet  sent  to  Constantinople,  ib. ;  estab- 
lishes her  power  in  the  East,  159 ;  quar- 
rel with,  208;  policy  toward  Turkey,  210; 
treaty  with  Turkey,  228;  relations  with 
Turkey,  327. 

Russo-Dutch  Loan,  question  of  the,  Ii.  46, 
47 ;  origin  of  the,  49 ;  debate  on  the,  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  111. 

Rutland,  Duke  of,  anti-Reform  petition,  ii. 
66 ;  birthday-party,  209. 


O ABLER,  Mr.,  maiden-speech  of,  in  oppo 

IJ    sition  to  the  Catholic  Eelief  Bill,  i.  ItiJ. 

Saint- Aulaire,  M.  de,  French  Embassador  at 
Vienna,  ii.  880 ;  anecdote  of,  ib. 

Saint- Aulaire,  Madame  de,  ii.  330. 

Saint-Germain,  Count  de,  account  of,  i.  515 ; 
the  "  Wandering  Jew,"  ib. 

Salerno,  i.  293. 

Salisbury,  Marquis  of,  petition  to  the  King, 
ii.  39. 

Saltash,  borough  of,  division  on,  i.  501. 

San  Carlos,  Duke  and  Duchess  of,  i.  7. 

Sandon,  Viscount,  moves  the  Address  in  tho 
House  of  Commons,  ii.  843 ;  on  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  461. 

Sandys,  Lord,  ii.  477. 

Sartorius,  Admiral,  petition,  ii.  488. 

Scarlett,  Sir  James,  Attorney-General,  i.  178. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  death  of,  ii.  104. 

Seaford,  Lord,  i.  70. 

Sebastiani,  Count,  French  Embassador  to  the 
Court  of  St.  James,  ii.  325. 

Sefton,  Earl  of,  dinner  to  Lord  Grey  and 
Lord  Brougham,  i.  415 ;  on  Lord  Brough- 
am, 483 ;  created  a  Peer  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  484 ;  qualities  of,  512. 

Segrave,  Lord,  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Glouces- 
tershire, ii.  445.  » 

Senior,  Nassau,  at  Holland  House,  ii.  283. 

Session  of  1833,  review  of  the,  ii.  194. 

Sestri,  i.  252. 

Seton,  Sir  Henry,  arrival  of,  from  Belgium,  L 
503. 

Seymour,  Lord,  withdraws  his  support  from 
the  Government,  i.  462. 

Seymour,  George,  Master  of  the  Robes,  L 
899. 

Seymour,  Horace,  retires  from  tbe  Lord 
Chamberlain's  Department,  i.  470. 


INDEX. 


535 


Seymour.  Jane,  coffin  of,  found  at  Windsor, 
i.  499. 

Bhadwett,  Right  Hon.  Sir  Lancelot,  on  legal 
business,  ii.  244. 

Shee,  Sir  Martin,  elected  President  of  the 
Royal  Academy,  i.  223. 

Sheridan.  Richard  Brinsley,  II.  449. 

BhieL,  Eight  Hon.  Richard,  dispute  with 
Lord  Althorp,  il.  217;  arrest  of,  by  the 
Sergeant-at-Arms,  ib. ;  committee,  219, 
220 ;  insult  to  Lord  Lyndhurst,  5U2. 

Kiege  of  Saragossa,  the,  ii.  203. 

Siena,  i.  237. 

Simplon,  the,  i.  353. 

Slavery,  abolition  of,  11. 133;  for  debates  on, 
see  Commons,  House  of. 

Smith,  Baron,  i.  445;  O'Connell's  attack 
upon.  ii.  220,  222,  224. 

Smith,  Sydney,  and  the  siege  of  Saragossa, 
ii.  203 ;  and  Professor  Leslie,  207 ;  sermon 
of,  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  812;  on  Sir 
James  Mackintosh,  442;  dispute  of,  with 
the  Bishop  of  London,  503 ;  letter  to  Arch- 
deacon Singleton,  ib. 

Bmithson,  Sir  Hugh,  ii.  130, 131. 

Somaglia,  Cardinal,  i.  265. 

Somerville,  Mrs.,  ii.  219. 

Sorrento,  i.  300 ;  Benediction  of  the  Flow- 
ers, ib. 

Soult,  Marshal,  sent  to  Lyons,  ii.  23 ;  Prime 
Minister  of  France,  119. 

Sou  they,  Robert,  at  breakfast  given  by  Mr. 
Henry  Taylor,  i.  406;  letter  to  Lord 
Brougham  on  rewards  to  literary  men,  441. 

Spain,  the  Duke  of  Wellington  on  affairs  in, 
ii.  210;  state  of,  216;  affairs  in,  226.  231 ; 
proposal  to  combine  with  Dora  Pedro, 
2;H  ;  affairs  in,  327;  deplorable  state  of, 
477. 

Spanish  Legion,  formation  of  the,  Ii.  498. 

Speaker,  the,  indecision  of,  ii.  96;  disputes 
on  the  Spcakership,  126,  345. 

Spencer,  Earl,  death  of,  ii.  290. 

Spencer,  Earl,  gee  Althorp,  Viscount 

Sprotbarough,  party  at.  for  the  races,  i.  899. 

SUii'l,  Madame  de,  "Considerations  sur  la 
Revolution  francaise,"  i.  18;  anecdote  of, 
515. 

Stafford  House,  concert  at,  il.  409. 

Swnli-y,  Right  Hon.  Edward,  Irish  Secretary, 
i.  412 ;  speech  on  the  Beform  I'.iil.  4*31 ; 
seat  In  the  Cabinet.  484 ;  speech  In  answer 
to  Croker,  ii.  30;  Secretary  for  the  Colo- 
nial Department,  154;  at  The  Oaks,  161; 
indecision  of,  Is4 ;  racing-interests  of,  200 ; 
resignation  of,  24o;  In  opposition,  249; 
'•Thiinblerig"  speech,  253;  conciliatory 
letter  to  Lord  Urey,  262;  disposition  or, 
312,  313 ;  declines  to  join  Sir  K.  Peel  820, 
821;  speech  at  Glasgow,  324;  formation 
of  the  Stanley  party,  359 ;  position  of  Mr. 
Stanley,  861 ;  policy  of,  86t> ;  meeting  of 
party  at  the  "  King's  Head,"  878 ;  speech 
on  Irish  Church  question,  876 ;  character 
of,  884;  letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Hesketh, 
497;  joins  the  Opposition,  404;  conduct 
of,  450. 

Stanley,  Right  Hon.  Edward  John,  Under- 
secretary of  State,  ii.  26(5. 


State  Paper  Office,  i  136  ;  11.  207. 

Stephen,  James,  opinions  on  emancipation. 
ii.  14s.' 

Stcphenson,  George,  on  steam-engines,  ii. 
216. 

Stewart,  Lady  Dudley,  party  given  by,  1. 
455;  accompanies  the  Prince  of  Orange  to 
Gravesend,  470. 

Stoke,  party  at,  i.  120,  514. 

Strangford,  Viscount,  sen:  to  the  Brazils,  L 
119. 

Strasburg  prisoners,  acquittal  of,  Ii.  496. 

Strawberry  Hill,  party  at,  i.  210. 

Strutt,  Edward,  i.  406. 

Stuart  de  Rothesay,  Lord,  Embassador  in 
France,  i.  119. 

Sugden,  Right  Hon.  Sir  Edward,  quarrel  of, 
with  Lord  Brougham,  ii.  109 ;  origin  of  ani- 
mosity toward  Lord  Brougham.  188;  Irish 
Chancellor,  822 ;  resignation  ot,  868 ;  retains 
his  appointment,  871. 

Sugden,  Lady,  not  received  at  Court,  ii.  868. 

Snnderiand,  state  of.  ii.  25. 

Sussex,  II.  R.  H.  the  Duke  of,  marriage  of. 
i  522. 

Sutherland.  Duke  of,  death  cf  the,  ii.  186; 
wealth  of  the,  ib. 

Suttee  case,  before  the  Privy  Council,  ii.  104. 

Swift ««.  Kelly,  before  the  Judicial  Commit- 
tee of  the  Privy  Council,  ii.  898,  898,  899, 
403;  judgment,  406. 

rTALLETRAND,  Charles  Maurice  de,  let- 

JL  ter  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  i.  20 ;  Em- 
bassador to  the  Court  of  St  James,  893; 
conversation  of,  514;  anecdotes,  ib. , 'mot 
of,  523;  dinner  with,  il  81 ;  on  Fox  and 
Pitt,  136 ;  detained  in  the  Thames,  18S ;  on 
Portuguese  affairs,  191 ;  on  relations  be- 
tween France  and  England,  439;  opinion 
of,  of  Lord  Palmerston,  478 :  dissatisfaction 
at  his  position  In  London,  500. 

Tasso,  i.  279 ;  bust  ot,  ib. 

Tavistock,  Marquis  of,  on  the  prospects  of 
the  Liberal  party,  II.  206. 

Taylor,  Sir  Herbert  conversation  with  Lord 
Wharncllffe,  il  56;  correspondence  with, 
about  the  Chancellorship,  182. 

Taylor,  Henry,  breakfast  at  the  house  ot,  1. 
406;  breakfast  to  Wordsworth,  Mill.  Kl- 
liot,  Charles  Villlers,  458 ;  on  the  abolition 
of  slavery  in  the  West  Indies,  il  189; 
"Philip  van  Artevelde,"  268. 

Taylor,  Brook,  mission  to  Koine,  t.  4S7. 

Tcddesley,  party  at  I.  9. 

Tenterden,  Lord,  death  of,  II.  128;  character 
of,  125;  classical  knowN-d^  of.  i>>. 

Terccira,  Portuguese  expedition  to,  I.  148, 
144. 

Ternl  Falls  of,  1.841. 

Thiers.  Adolphc,  dinner  to,  II.  196 ;  account 
of,  iJ>. ;  at  the  head  of  the  French  Govern- 
ment, 226 ;  on  Interference  In  Spain,  ib.  ; 
foreign  policy  ot  482 ;  social  qualities  of, 
491;  quarrel  with  Lndy  Granville,  il.; 
courts  the  favor  of  Austria,  COO. 

Thompson,  Alderman,  difficulties  with  hi* 
constituents,  L  498. 


536 


INDEX. 


Thomson,  Eight  Hon.  Charles  Poulett,  origi- 
nates a  commercial  treaty  with  France,  ii. 
28;  Board  of  Trade,  267,  390;  self-compla- 
cency of,  452. 

Thorwaldsen,  Albert,  at  Florence,  i.  254,  255. 

Tierney,  Right  Hon.  George,  i.  12;  Master 
of  the  Mint,  80;  death  of,  229. 

Times,  the,  on  Lord  Harrowby's  letter,  ii. 
(57 ;  attacks  Lord  Grey,  69 ;  Lord  Chancel- 
lor's speech,  110;  influence  of  the.  151; 
and  Lord  Brougham,  284;  disposition  of, 
to  support  a  Tory  Government,  298,  300 ; 
terms  of  support  to  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton, 303 ;  power  of  the,  304 ;  negotiotions 
with  Lord  Lyndhurst,  316;  letter  signed 
"Onslow,"34l. 

Titehfield,  Marquis  of,  death  of,  i.  63 ;  char- 
actor  of,  64. 

Tivoli,  i.  319. 

TixalL,  party  at,  i.  9;  Macao,  10. 

Torrington.  Viscount,  and  the  King,  ii.415. 

Tory  party,  state  of  the,  i  495 ;  meeting  at 
Bridgewater  House,  ii.  373 ;  state  of  the,  432 ; 
indifference  of  the  members  of  the,  503. 

Treaty  of  Unkiar  Skelessi,  ii.  208 ;  between 
Russia  and  Turkey,  1834,  229 ;  the  Quad- 
ruple, for  the  pacification  of  the  Peninsula, 
signed  1834,  250. 

Tree,  Ellen,  at  the  City  Theatre,  i.  510. 

Tuileries,  the,  reception  at,  ii.  497;  ball  at, 
ib. ;  small  ball  at,  499. 

Turf,  the,  reflections  on,  ii.  289. 

Turin,  i.  247. 

Turkey,  threatened  by  Russia,  i.  194;  criti- 
cal state  of.  ii.  142 ;  relations  with  Russia, 
3-27. 

Tusculum,  i.  332. 

Twiss,  Horace,  supper-party  given  by,  ii.  393. 


UNION,  speech  of  O'Conncll  on  the  repeal 
of  the,  ii.  238. 

Unions,  proclamation  against  the,  ii.  24 ;  pro- 
cession of  trades,  238. 

Urquhart.  Mr.,  Secretary  to  the  Embassy  at 
Constantinople,  ii.  510. 


VAN  de  Weyer,  Sylvain,  Belgian  Minister 
to  the  Court  of  St.  James,  i.  510. 

VaudreuiL,  M.  de,  French  charge  d'affaires 
in  London,  on  French  affairs,  i.  376. 

Vaughan,  Right  Hon.  Sir  Charles,  special 
mission  to  Constantinople,  ii.  51-7. 

Vaughan,  Right  Hon.  Sir  John,  sworn  in  a 
Privy  Councilor  i.  489. 

Venice,  i.  345;  sights  of,  346,  348,  850. 

Vornet,  Horace,  at  Rome,  i.  276. 

Verona,  Congress  of.  i.  55;  visit  to,  352. 

Verulam,  Earl  of,  petition  to  the  King,  ii.  39. 

Vesuvius,  nscent  of,  i.  298. 

Vicenza,  i.  851. 

Victoria,  H.  K.  H.  the  Princess,  at  a  child's 
ball,  i.  177;  first  appearance  of,  at  a  draw- 
ing-room, 458;  at  Burghley,  ii.  440;  health 
of,  proposed  by  the  King,  481  ;  at  Wind- 
Bor,  484;  letter  from  the  King,  512;  ee- 
clusion  of,  515;  first  council  of,  518;  pro- 


claimed QUEEN,  519  ;  impression  produced 
on  all,  519. 

Villiers,  Hon.  Hyde,  appointed  to  the  Board 
of  Control,  i.  480. 

Villicrs,  Hon.  George,  at  the  Grove,  1.446; 
conversation  with  the  Duke  of  Wellington, 
ib. ;  mission  to  Paris  for  a  commercial 
treaty,  ii.  28;  Minister  at  Madrid,  18!,  186, 
1 87 ;  on  prospects  in  Spain,  228,  237 ;  let- 
ters of,  from  Madrid,  445,  478,  482. 

Villiers,  Hon.  Charles  Pelham,  i.  406. 

Virginia  Water,  i.  378;  visit  to,  382. 

TTTALEWSKI,  Count  Alexander,  arrival  of, 

VV      in  London,  i.  445. 

Walpole,  Horace,  letters  to  Sir  Horace  Mann, 
ii.  170. 

"Wandering  Jew,  The,"  i.  515. 

Warsaw,  affair  at,  i.  437;  taken  by  the  Rus- 
sians, 521. 

Warwickshire  election,  ii.  472. 

Wellesley,  Marquis  of,  Lord-Lieutenant  of 
Ireland,  ii.  19(5;  correspondence  with  Mr. 
Littleton,  258,  264;  resigns  the  White 
Wand,  391. 

Wellesley,  Long,  Esq.,  committed  for  con- 
tempt of  court,  i.  497. 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  account  of  the  battle 
of  Waterloo,  i.  33;  in  Paris  with  Blucher, 
35;  dispute  with  the  King,  43;  on  affairs 
of  France  and  Spain,  56;  opinion  of  Bona- 
parte, 60 ;  mission  to  Russia,  66 ;  visit  to 
the  Royal  Lodge,  86 ;  opinion  of  Mr.  Can- 
ning, 90;  forms  a  Government,  1828,  105; 
resolves  to  carry  the  Catholic  Relief  Bill, 
121;  correspondence  with  Dr.  Curtis,  125; 
ascendency  of,  in  the  Cabinet,  and  over  the 
King,  149;  hardness  of  character  of,  162; 
duel  with  Lord  Winchelsca,  ib.;  conver- 
sation with,  on  King  George  IV.  and  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland,  183,  185;  prosecu- 
tion of  the  press,  198,  219,  221;  business 
habits  of,  223 ;  conversation  with,  on  the 
French  Revolution,  375;  qualities  ef,  391 ; 
confidence  in,  394;  declaration  against  Re- 
form, 401;  Administration  of,  defeated, 
408;  resignation  of,  409;  suppresses  dis- 
turbance in  Hampshire,  419 ;  political  char- 
acter of,  224;  reported  letter  of  advice  to 
the  King  of  France,  436;  correspondence 
with  Mr.  Canning,  444;  conduct  toward 
the  Government,  492;  objections  to  Mr. 
Canning,  501;  dinner  at  Apsley  House, 
517 ;  anti-Reform  dinner  at  Apsley  House, 
ii.  1;  remarks  upon,  16;  memorial  to  the 
King,  21 ;  correspondence  with  Lord 
Wharncliffe,  30;  obstinacy  of,  41 ;  letter  to 
Lord  Wharncliffe,  52 ;  unbecoming  letter 
laid  before  the  King,  5(i ;  reply  to  Lord 
Wharncliffe,  57;  speech  on  Irish  Educa- 
tion ;  sent  for  by  the  King,  92 ;  efforts  of,  to 
form  an  Administration,  96;  inability  of,  to 
form  an  Administration,  98 ;  statement  of 
his  case,  100;  conduct  of  the  Tory  party, 
ib.  ;  ill-feeling  toward  Peel,  120;  view  of 
affairs,  1833,  152;  government  of  French 
provinces,  ib. ;  respect  evinced  toward, 
159;  defense  of  policy,  165;  speech  on  the 


INDEX. 


537 


Coronation  Oath,  177,  17S;  policy  on  the 
Irish  Church  Hill,  178;  on  Portuguese 
affairs,  179, 191 ;  and  the  Bonaparte  family, 
192;  subsequent  account  of  attempt  to 
form  a  Government,  210;  compared  with 
Lord  Grey,  232 ;  speech  on  the  admission 
of  Dissenters  to  the  University,  ib. ;  pre- 
sents the  Oxford  petition,  237;  and  the 
Whigs,  240;  installed  ns  Chancellor  of  the 
University  of  Oxford,  251 ;  First  Lord  of 
the  Treasury,  and  Secretary  of  State  for 
the  Home  Office,  297;  arrangement  fora 
provisional  Government,  299 ;  at  the  pub- 
lic offices,  1S84,  802 ;  account  of  crisis  of 
1884,  809;  inconsistencies  of,  817;  on  the 
division  on  the  Speakership,  856 ;  on  Lord 
Londonderry's  appointment,  864 ;  anecdote 
of  Lord  Brougham,  369 ;  on  Spain,  402 ;  on 
the  Walcheren  expedition,  403 ;  policy  of,  on 
the  Corporation  Bill,  413;  letter  to  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland,  444;  speech  in  an- 
Bwer  to  Lord  Lyndhurst,  480;  meeting  of 
Tory  Peers,  509 ;  crowned  by  the  Duchess 
lit Cannizzaro,  517;  quarrel  with  the  Duke 
of  Clarence,  ib. 

Western,  Lord,  evidence  of,  il.  266. 

West  India  Body,  consternation  of  the,  ii. 
141 ;  deputation  of  the,  ib. 

West  India  Bill,  prospects  of  the,  11. 181.  For 
debates  on  the,  see  Commons,  House  of. 

West  Indies,  Lord  Chandos's  motion  on  the 
state  of  the,  i.  455;  project  of  emancipa- 
tion, ii.  13S;  alarm  in  the,  143;  difficulties 
attending  emancipation,  149;  committee 
on  affairs  of  the,  3ns ;  decision  on  the  office 
of  Secretary  of  the  Island  of  Jamaica, 
410. 

Westrneath,  Marchioness  of,  pension,  L  133, 
130. 

Westmeath  vs.  Westmeath,  appeal  before  the 
Judicial  Committee,  ii.  Xlt,  270;  decision 
in,  290. 

Westminster  election,  1818,  contest,  i.  8;  In 
1S19,  15,  17;  in  1833,  ii.  15s;  in  1837, 
510. 

Wetherell,  Sir  Charles,  account  of,  i.  1C4; 
speech  on  the  Reform  Bill,  4<il ;  supports 
Sir  E.  Sugden's  motion,  ii.  110. 

Wharncliffe,  Lord,  interview  with  Radical 
Jones,  ii.  12;  overtures  for  a  compromise 
on  the  Reform  Bill,  21 ;  character  of,  23 ; 
draws  up  a  declaration  for  signature  in  the 
City,  24;  disappointment  of,  28;  final  in- 
terview of,  with  Lord  Grey,  29;  corre- 
spondence of,  with  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton, 80;  interview  of,  with  the  King  on 
the  proposed  new  Peers,  88, 40;  memoran- 
dum laid  before  the  King,  56;  as  chief  of  a 
party,  68;  in  communication  with  Lord 
Lyndhurst  and  Lord  Ellenborough,  89 ; 
defends  his  policy,  91 ;  paper  on  the  Tory 
party.  135 ;  on  the  prospects  of  the  country, 
216;  joins  the  Peel  Government,  820;  on 
the  prospects  of  the  session.  -Jii-j. 

Wlmtely,  Richard,  D.  D.,  Archbishop  of  Dub- 
lin, il.  4 11. 

Whig  party,  state  of  the.  11.  806 ;  tactics  of 
the,  :!06;  union  with  O'Connell,  858;  symp- 
toms of  disunion  in  the,  860;  meeting  at 


Liehfleld  House,  368;   prospects  of  th«, 
872. 

Wicklow,  Earl  of,  attack  on  the  Govern- 
ment, it  264. 

Wilberforco,  William,  speech  of,  i.  14;  ne- 
(rotiation  with  Mr.  Canning,  463. 

William  IV.,  King,  accession  of,  i.  857;  dis- 
like of,  to  the  Duke  of  Cumberland.  300 ; 
behavior  of,  361,  8C4;  at  the  House  of 
Lords,  865;  personal  anecdotes  of,  865- 
868;  dinner  at  Apsley  House,  863;  at 
Windsor,  87S;pays  the  racing  debts  of 
the  Duke  of  York,  898;  speech  on  the 
change  of  Government,  417;  levee.  11^; 
health  of,  447,  448 ;  mobbed  on  returning 
from  the  theatre,  456;  in  mourning  for  his 
son-in-law,  469;  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
472 ;  dissolves  Parliament,  ib. ,'  conduct  to 
his  Ministers,  474;  at  Ascot,  481;  opens 
Parliament,  487;  at  Windsor.  509 ;  and  tho 
Bishops,  514 ;  divides  the  old  Great  Seal, 
617;  crowned  at  Westminster,  510 ;  levee, 
520;  toasts  at  dinner  at  St.  James's,  521 ; 
interview  with  Lord  Wharncliffe  on  crea- 
tion of  new  Peers,  il.  40;  health  of.  >•-' ; 
reluctance  of,  to  make  Peers,  83;  a<l \ei-.-e 
sentiments  toward  tho  Whigs.  96;  dinner 
to  the  Jockey  Club,  99 ;  levitv  of.  ib.  ; 
letter  to  the  Peers,  101;  character  of. 
103;  struck  by  a  stone,  i>>. ;  country- 
dance,  134;  anecdotes  of,  ib. ;  state  of 
mind  of,  152 ;  letter  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  163,  169;  letter-writing.  171; 
animosity  to  the  French,  19S;  irritability 
of;  289;  conduct  of,  241;  personal  feel- 
ings toward  the  members  of  Lord  Mel- 
bourne's Administration,  284 ;  dismissal  of 
Lord  Melbourne,  298 ;  speech  to  the  Tory 
Lords,  297 ;  provisional  appointments,  ib. ; 
account  of  difference  with  Lord  Melbourne, 
298;  resolution  of,  to  support  tho  Tory 
Government,  808 ;  address  to  tho  new  Min- 
isters, 820;  on  the  state  of  Persia.  :!-_'S 
whims  of.  344 ;  Island  of  St.  Bartholomew, 
ib. ;  indignation  of,  at  the  affair  of  Lord 
Londonderry,  868;  distress  of,  886;  and 
the  Ministers,  881 ;  personal  habits  of,  897; 
speech  to  Sir  Charles  Grey,  408 ;  audience 
to  Lord  Durham,  404;  hostility  toward 
Lord  Glonelg  and  the  Ministers,  407 ;  con- 
duct to  the  Speaker,  409 ;  scene  with  Lord 
Torrington,  415;  speech  to  tho  Bishops, 
430;  speech  on  the  Militia,  486;  and  the 
Duchess  of  Kent,  489;  speech  at  dinner  to 
tho  Jockey  Club,  470:  Toryism  of.  470; 
Joke,  479;  speech  to  the  Bishop  of  Kly, 
487 ;  proposes  the  health  of  the  Princess 
Victoria,  ib. ;  aversion  to  his  Ministers, 
481,  483 ;  speech  to  Lord  Mlnto,  ib. ;  rude- 
ness to  tho  Duchess  of  Kent,  484 ;  iwetie 
nt  birthday  party,  ib. ;  reception  of  King 
Leopold,  480;  speech,  1837,  499;  ad.lr.-s 
to  Lord  Aylmcr,  507;  illness  of.  Ml,  M'-'; 
letter  to  the  Princess  Victoria.  M-! ;  dan 
porous  illness  of,  513;  pnjrmoftnM  up 
for,  515 ;  death  of,  517 ;  kindness  of  heart 

oc  no. 

Williams.  Sir  John,  Justice  of  tho  Common 
Plea*,  11.  230. 


538 


INDEX. 


Winchelsea,  Earl  of,  duel  of,  with  the  Duke 

of  Wellington,  i.  102 ;  incident  of  the  hand- 
kerchief, 16S. 

Winchester  Cathedral,  ii.  413. 
Windham,  Eight  Hon.  William,  diary  of,  i. 

196 ;  conversation  with  Dr.  Johnson,  197. 
Windsor  Castle,  dinner  in  St.  George's  Hall, 

i.  385,  392 ;  dinner  during  the  Ascot  week, 

482. 

Windsor  election,  mobs  at  the,  ii.  251. 
Woburn,  party  at,  i.  20;  riot  at,  421. 
Wood,  Charles,  on  the  Reform  Bill,  ii.  80. 
Wood,  Matthew,  returned  to  Parliament  for 

the  City  of  London,  ii.  331. 
Worcester,  Marchioness  of,  death  of  the,  i. 

89. 
Worcester  Cathedral,  ii.  449 ;  monument  of 

Bishop  Hough,  ib. 
Wordsworth,  William,  characteristics  of,  i. 

459. 
Wortley,  Eight  Hon.  John,  Secretary  to  the 

Board  of  Control,  i.  230.     See  Wharncliffe. 
Wrottesley,  Sir  John,  motion  of,  for  a  call  of 

the  House,  ii.  176, 180. 


Wynford,  Lord,  raised  to  the  Peerage,  i.  173? 

Deputy  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Lords,  ib. 
Wynn,  Eight  Hon.  Charles,  President  of  the 

Board  of  Control,  i.  80 ;  resignation  of,  462. 


"\70EK,  H.  K.  H.  the  Duke  of,  character  of, 

JL  i.  4 ;  management  of  racing  establish- 
ment, 37 ;  dislike  to  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton,  41,  53;  duel  with  the  Duke  of  Bich- 
mond,  52 ;  anecdotes  of  King  George  IV., 
62 ;  illness  of.  70, 72 ;  death  of,  71 ;  funeral 
of,  75;  letter  to  Lord  Liverpool  on  the 
Catholic  question.  444. 

Tork,  II.  E.  H.  the  Duchess  of,  character  of, 
i.  4 ;  portrait  of,  7 ;  illness  of,  23 ;  death  of, 
29. 

Young,  Thomas,  private  secretary  to  Lord 
Melbourne,  ii.  277. 


ZEA  Bermudez,  ii.  187;  dismissal  of,  21 T. 
Zurnalacarreguy,  ii.  402. 


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earnest  with  his  work.  The  '  History  of  the  Conflict  between  Religion  and  Science ' 
is  a  fitting  sequel  to  the  'History  of  the  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe,'  and  will 
add  to  its  author's  already  high  reputation  as  a  philosophic  historian. "-N.  Y.  Tribune. 

THEOLOGY  IN  THE  ENGLISH  POETS. 
COWPER,   COLERIDGE,   WORDSWORTH,   and  BURNS.     By 
Rev.  STOPFORD  BROOKE.     I  vol.,  izmo.     Price,  $2. 

"Apart  from  its  literary  merits,  the  book  maybe  said  to  possess  an  independent 
value,  as  tending  to  familiarize  a  certain  section  of  the  English  public  with  more  en- 
lightened views  of  theology." — London  Atkenttum. 

BLOOMER'S  COMMERCIAL  CRYPTOGRAPH. 

A  Telegraph  Code  and  Double  Index — Holocryptic  Cipher.     By  J.  G. 
BLOOMER.     I  vol.,  8vo.     Price,  $5. 

By  the  use  of  this  work,  business  communications  of  whatever  nature  may  be  tel*. 
graphed  with  secrecy  and  economy. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  New  York. 


RECENT  PUBLICATIONS.— SCIENTIFIC. 

THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MENTAL  PHYSIOLOGY.  With  their  Ap- 
plications to  the  Training  and  Discipline  of  the  Mind,  and  the  Study  of  its 
Morbid  Conditions.  By  W.  B.  CARPENTER,  F.  R.  S.,  etc.  Illustrated,  izmo. 
737  pages.  Price,  $3.00. 

"  The  work  is  probably  the  ablest  exposition  of  the  subject  which  bus  been  given  to  the  world,  and  goes 
fir  to  establish  a  new  system  of  Mental  Philosophy,  upon  a  much  broader  and  more  substantial  basis  than 
it  has  heretofore  stood." — St.  Louis  Democrat. 

"  Let  us  add  that  nothing  we  have  said,  or  in  any  limited  space  could  say,  would  give  an  adequate  con- 
ception of  the  valuable  and  curious  collection  of  facts  bearing  on  morbid  mental  conditions,  the  learned 
physiological  exposition,  and  the  treasure-house  of  useful  hints  for  mental  training,  which  make  this  large 
»nil  yet  very  amusing,  as  well  as  instructive  book,  an  encyclopedia  of  well-classified  and  often  very 
startling  psychological  experiences." — London  Spectator, 

THE  EXPANSE  OF  HEAVEN.     A  Series  of  Essays  on  the  Wonders  of 

the  Firmament.     By  R.  A.  PROCTOR,  B.  A. 
"  A  very  charming  work :  cannot  fail  to  lift  the  reader's  mind  up  '  through  Nature's  work  to  Nature's 

f-,     1  ,  ,, j  *     I       ^laniard 

"Prof.  R.  A.  Proctor  'is  one  of  the  very  few  rhetorical  scientists  who  have  the  art  of  making  science 
popular  without  making  it  or  themselves  contemptible.  It  wil!  be  hard  to  find  anywhere  else  so  much 
skill  in  effective  expression,  combined  with  so  much 'genuine  astronomical  learning,  as  is  to  be  seen  in  his 

PHYSIOLOGY  FOB  PRACTICAL  USE.  By  various  Writers.  Edited 
by  JAMES  HINTON.  With  50  Illustrations,  i  vol.,  121110.  Price,  $2.25. 

**  This  book  is  one  of  rare  value,  and  will  prove  useful  to  a  large  class  in  the  community.  Its  chief 
recommendation  is  in  its  applying  the  laws  of  the  science  of  physiology  to  cases  of  the  deranged  or  diseased 
operations  of  the  organs  or  processes  of  the  human  system.  It  is  as  thoroughly  practical  as  is  a  book  of 
formulas  of  medicine,  and  the  style  in  which  the  information  is  given  is  so  entirely  devoid  of  the  mystification 
of  technical  or  scientific  terms  that  the  most  simple  can  easily  comprehend  it."—  Button  Gazette. 

"  Of  all  the  works  upon  health  of  a  popular  character  which  we  have  met  with  for  some  time,  and  we 
are  glad  to  thiuk  that  this  most  important  branch  of  knowledge  is  becoming  more  enlarged  every  day, 
the  work  before  us  appears  to  be  the  simplest,  the  soundest,  and  the  best"—  Chicago  Inter-Octan. 

THE  GREAT  ICE  AGE,  and  its  Relations  to  the  Antiquity  of 

Man.  By  JAMES  GEIKIE,  F.  R.  S.  E.  With  Maps,  Charts,  and  numerous  Illus- 
trations, i  vol.,  thick  I2mo.  Price,  $2.50. 

•"The  Great  Ice  Age'  is  a  work  of  extraordinary  interest  and  value.  The  subject  is  peculiarly 
attractive  in  the  immensity  of  its  scope,  and  exercises  a  fascination  over  the  imagination  so  absorbing  that 
it  can  scarcely  find  expression  in  words.  It  has  all  the  charms  of  wonder-tales,  and  excites  scientific  and 
unscientific  minds  alike."— Boston  Gazette. 

"  Every  step  in  the  process  is  traced  with  admirable  perspicuity  and  fullness  by  Mr.  Geiliie." — Lon- 
don Saturday  Review. 

" '  The  Great  Ice  Age,'  bv  James  Geikie,  ia  a  book  that  unites  the  popular  and  abstruse  elements  of 
scientific  research  to  a  remarkable  deeree.  The  author  recounts  a  story  that  is  more  romantic  than  nine 

els  out  of  ten,  and  we  have  read  the  book  from  first  to  last  with  unflagging  interest."— Jiottmi  Oanmer- 


ADDRESS  DELIVERED  BEFORE   THE  BRITISH  ASSOCIA-* 

TION,  assembled  at  Belfast.  By  JOHV  TYNDALL,  F.  R.  S.,  President.  Re- 
vised, with  additions,  by  the  author,  since  the  delivery.  I2mo.  120  pages. 
Paper.  Price,  50  cents. 

This  edition  of  this  now  famous  address  is  the  only  one  authorized  by  the  author,  and  contains  addi- 
tions and  corrections  not  in  the  newspaper  reports. 

THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  MAN.  Designed  to  represent  the  Existing  State 
of  Physiological  Science  as  applied  to  the  Functions  of  the  Human  Body.  By 
AUSTIN  FLINT,  Jr.,  M.  D.  Complete  in  Five  Volumes,  octavo,  of  about  500 
pages  each,  with  105  Illustrations.  Cloth,  $22.00;  sheep,  $27.00.  Each  vol- 
ume sold  separately.  Price,  cloth,  $4.50;  sheep,  $5.50.  The  fifth  and  last 
volume  has  just  been  issued. 

The  above  is  by  far  the  most  complete  work  on  human  physiology  in  the  English  language.  It  treats 
of  the  functions  of  the  human  body  from  a  practical  point  of  view,  and  is  enriched  by  many  original  ex- 
periments and  observations  by  the  author.  Considerable  space  is  given  to  physiological  anatomv,  par- 
ticularly the  structure  of  glandular  organs,  the  digestive  system,  nervous  system,  blood-vessels,  organs  of 
special  sense,  and  organs  of  generation.  It  not  only  considers  the  various  functions  of  the  body,  from  an 
experimental  stand-point,  but  is  peculiarly  rich  in  citations  of  the  literature  of  physiology.  It  is  therefore 
invaluable  as  a  work  of  reference  for  those  who  wish  to  study  the  subject  (if  physiology  exhaustively.  As 
a  complete  treatise  on  a  subject  of  such  interest,  it  should  be  in  the  libraries  of  literary  and  scientific  men, 
as  well  as  in  the  hands  of  practitioners  and  students  of  medicine.  Illustrations  are  introduced  wherever 
they  are  necessary  for  the  elucidation  of  the  text. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Y. 


Opinions  of  the  Press  on  the  "International  Scientific  Scrus." 


Tyndall's  Forms  of  Water. 

I  vol.,  I2mo.     Cloth.     Illustrated. ;     Price,  $1.50. 

"  In  the  volume  now  published,  Professor  Tyndall  has  presented  a  noble  illustration 
of  the  acuteness  and  subtlety  of  his  intellectual  powers,  the  scope  nnd  insight  of  his 
scientific  vision,  his  singular  command  of  the  appropriate  language  of  exposition,  and 
the  peculiar  vivacity  and  grace  with  which  he  unfolds  the  results  of  intricate  scientific 
research." — N.  Y.  Tribune. 

"The  'Forms  of  Water,'  by  Professor  Tyndall,  is  an  interesting  and  instructive 
little  volume,  admirably  printed  and  illustrated.  Prepared  expressly  for  this  series,  it 
is  in  some  measure  a  guarantee  of  the  excellence  of  the  volumes  that  will  follow,  and  an 
indication  that  the  publishers  will  spare  no  pains  to  include  in  the  series  the  freshest  in- 
vestigations of  the  best  scientific  minds." — Boston  yoiirnal. 

"  This  series  is  admirably  commenced  by  this  little  volume  from  the  pen  of  Prof. 
Tyndall.  A  perfect  master  of  his  subject,  he  presents  in  a  style  easy  and  attractive  hi» 
methods  of  investigation,  and  the  results  obtained,  and  gives  to  the  reader  a  clear  con- 
ception of  all  the  wondrous  transformations  to  which  water  is  subjected." — Churchman, 


II. 

Bagehot's  Physics  and  Politics. 

I  vol.,  I2mo.     Price,  $1.50. 

"  If  the  '  International  Scientific  Series '  proceeds  as  it  has  begun,  it  will  more  than 
fulfil  the  promise  given  to  the  reading  public  in  its  prospectus.  The  first  volume,  by 
Professor  Tyndall,  was  a  model  of  lucid  and  attractive  scientific  exposition  ;  and  now 
we  have  a  second,  by  Mr.  Walter  Bagehot,  which  is  not  only  very  lucid  and  charming, 
but  also  original  and  suggestive  in  the  highest  degree.  Nowhere  since  the  publication 
of  Sir  Henry  Maine's  'Ancient  Law,'  have  we  seen  so  many  fruitful  thoughts  sug- 
gested in  the  course  of  a  couple  of  hundred  pages.  .  .  .  To  do  justice  to  Mr.  Bage- 
hot's fertile  book,  would  require  a  long  article.  With  the  best  of  intentions,  we  are 
conscious  of  having  given  but  a  sorry  account  of  it  in  these  brief  paragraphs.  But  wo 
hope  we  have  said  enough  to  commend  it  to  the  attention  of  the  thoughtful  leader." — 
Prof.  JOHN  FISKE,  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly. 

"  Mr.  Bagehot's  style  is  clear  and  vigorous.  We  refrain  from  giving  a  fuller  ac- 
count of  these  suggestive  essays,  only  because  we  are  sure  that  our  readers  will  find  it 
worth  their  while  to  peruse  the  book  for  themselves :  and  we  sincerely  hope  that  the 
forthcoming  parts  of  Ac  'International  Scientific  Series'  will  be  as  interesting."-' 
Atheneeum. 

"  Mr.  Bagehot  discusses  an  immense  variety  of  topics  connected  with  the  progress 
of  societies  and  nations,  and  the  development  of  their  distinctive  peculiarities;  and  hii 
book  shows  an  abundance  of  ingenious  and  original  thought" — ALFKED  P 
WALLACK,  in  Nature. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.-Y. 


Opinions  of  the  Press  on  the  "International  Scientific  Series." 


ill. 

Foods. 

By  Dr,  EDWARD   SMITH. 
1  vol.,  I2mo.     Cloth.     Illustrated Price,  $1.75. 

In  making  up  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SCIENTIFIC  SERIES,  Dr.  Kdward  Smith  was  se- 
lected as  the  ablest  man  in  England  to  treat  the  important  subject  of  Foods.  His  services 
were  secured  for  the  undertaking,  and  the  little  treatise  he  has  produced  shows  that  the 
choice  of  a  writer  on  this  subject  was  most  fortunate,  as  the  book  is  unquestionably  the 
clearest  and  best-digested  compend  of  the  Science  of  Foods  that  has  appeared  in  our 
language. 

"  The  book  contains  a  series  of  diagrams,  displaying  the  effects  of  sleep  and  meals 
on  pulsation  and  respiration,  and  of  various  kinds  of  food  on  respiration,  which,  as  the 
results  of  Dr.  Smith's  own  experiments,  possess  a  very  high  value.  We  have  not  far 
to  go  in  this  work  for  occasions  of  favorable  criticism ;  they  occur  throughout,  but  are 
perhaps  most  apparent  in  those  parts  of  the  subject  with  which  Dr.  Smith's  name  is  es- 
pecially linked." — London  Examiner. 

"  The  union  of  scientific  and  popular  treatment  in  the  composition  of  this  work  will 
afford  an  attraction  to  many  readers  who  would  have  been  indifferent  to  purely  theoreti- 
cal details.  .  .  .  Stillhis  work  abounds  in  information,  much  of  which  is  of  great  value, 
and  a  part  of  which  could  not  easily  be  obtained  from  other  sources.  Its  interest  is  de- 
cidedly enhanced  for  students  who  demand  both  clearness  and  exactness  of  statement, 
by  the  profusion  of  well-executed  woodcuts,  diagrams,  and  tables,  which  accompany  thq 
volume.  .  .  .  The  suggestions  of  the  author  on  the  use  of  tea  and  coffee,  and  of  the  va- 
rious forms  of  alcohol,  although  perhaps  not  strictly  of  a  novel  character,  are  highly  in- 
structive, and  form  an  interesting  portion  of  the  volume." — N.  Y.  Tribune. 


IV. 

Body  and  Mind. 

THE    THEORIES   OF   THEIR   RELATION. 

By  ALEXANDER    BAIN,    LL.  D. 
I  vol.,   I2mo.      Cloth. •     •     •     •     Price,   $1.50. 

PROFESSOR  BAIN  is  the  author  of  two  well-known  standard  works  upon  the  Science 
of  Mind — "  The  Senses  and  the  Intellect,"  and  "  The  Emotions  and  the  Will."  He  K 
one  of  the  highest  living  authorities  in  the  school  which  holds  that  there  can  be  no  sound 
or  valid  psychology  unless  the  mind  and  the  body  are  studied,  as  they  exist,  together. 

"  It  contains  a  forcible  statement  of  the  connection  between  mind  and  body,  study- 
ing their  subtile  interwprkings  by  the  light  of  the  most  recent  physiological  investiga- 
tions. The  summary  in  Chapter  V.,  of  the  investigations  of  Dr.  Lionel  Beale  of  the 
embodiment  of  the  intellectual  functions  in  the  cerebral  system,  will  be  found  the 
freshest  and  most  interesting  part  of  his  book.  Prof.  Bain's  own  theory  of  the  connec- 
tion between  the  mental  and  the  bodily  part  in  man  is  stated  by  himself  to  be  as  follows : 
There  is  '  one  substance,  with  two  sets  of  properties,  two  sides,  the  physical  and  the 
mental — a  double-faced  unity.'  While,  in  the  strongest  manner,  asserting  the  union 
of  mind  with  brain,  he  yet  denies  'the  association  of  union  in  place'  but  asserts  the 
union  of  close  succession  in  time,'  holding  that  '  the  same  being  is,  by  alternate  fits,  un- 
der extended  and  under  unextended  consciousness."  ' — Christian  Register. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Y. 


Opinions  of  the  Press  on  the  "  International  Scientific  Series." 

V. 

The  Study  of  Sociology. 

By   HERBERT   SPENCER.      ' 
I  vol.,  I2mo.     Cloth Price,  $1.50. 

"  The  philosopher  whose  distinguished  name  gives  weight  and  influence  to  thus  vol- 
ume, has  given  in  its  pages  some  of  the  finest  specimens  of  reasoning  in  all  its  forms 
and  departments.  There  is  a  fascination  in  his  array  of  facts,  incidents,  and  opinions, 
which  draws  on  the  reader  to  ascertain  his  conclusions.  The  coolness  and  calmness  of 
his  treatment  of  acknowledged  difficulties  and  grave  objections  to  his  theories  win  for 
him  a  close  attention  and  sustained  effort,  on  the  part  of  the  reader,  to  comprehend,  fol- 
low, grasp,  and  appropriate  his  principles.  This  book,  independently  of  its  bearing 
upon  sociology,  is  valuable  as  lucidly  showing  what  those  essential  characteristics  arc 
which  entitle  any  arrangement  and  connection  of  facts  and  deductions  to  be  called  a 
tcteitce." — Episcopalian, 

"  This  work  compels  admiration  by  the  evidence  which  it  gives  of  immense  re- 
search, study,  and  observation,  and  is.  withal,  written  in  a  popular  and  very  pleasing 
sfyle.  It  is  a  fascinating  work,  as  well  as  one  of  deep  practical  thought." — Bost.  J'ast. 

"  Herbert  Spencer  is  unquestionably  the  foremost  living  thinker  in  the  psychological 
and  sociological  fields,  and  this  volume  is  an  important  contribution  to  the  science  of 
which  it  treats.  ...  It  will  prove  more  popular  than  any  of  its  author's  other  creations, 
for  it  is  more  plainly  addressed  to  the  peopje  and  has  a  more  practical  and  less  specu- 
lative cast.  It  will  require  thought,  but  it  is  well  worth  thinking  about." — Albany 
Evening  Journal. 

VI. 

The   New  Chemistry. 

By  JOSIAH  P.  COOKE,  JR., 

Erving  Professor  of  Chemistry  and  Mineralogy  in  Harvard  University. 
I  vol.,   I2mo.     Cloth Price,  $2.00. 

"  The  book  of  Prof.  Cooke  is  a  model  of  the  modern  popular  science  work.  It  has 
just  the  due  proportion  of  fact,  philosophy,  and  true  romance,  to  make  it  a  fascinating 
companion,  either  for  the  voyage  or  the  study." — Daily  Graphic. 

"  This  admirable  monograph,  by  the  distinguished  Erving  Professor  of  Chemistry 
in  Harvard  University,  is  the  first  American  contribution  to  'The  International  Scien- 
tific Series,'  and  a  more  attractive  piece  of  work  in  the  way  of  popular  exposition  upon 
a  difficult  subject  has  not  appeared  in  a  long  time.'  It  not  only  well  sustains  the  char- 
acter of  the  volumes  with  which  it  is  associated,  but  its  reproduction  in  European  coun- 
tries, will  be  an  honor  to  American  science." — New  York  Tribune. 

"  All  the  chemists  in  the  country  will  enjoy  its  perusal,  and  many  will  seize  upon  it 
as  a  thing  longed  for.  For,  to  those  advanced  students  who  have  kept  well  abreast  ol 
the  chemical  tide,  it  offers  a  calm  philosophy.  To  those  others,  youngest  of  the  class, 
who  have  emerged  from  the  schools  since  new  methods  have  prevailed,  it  presents  a 
generalization^  drawing  to  its  use  all  the  data,  the  relations  of  which  the  newly-fledged 


fromlfar.  The  tidings,  too,  had  come  that  the  old  had  given  way ;  and  little  more  than 
this  they  knew.  .  .  .  Prof,  ("ooke's '  New  ChemUtry '  must  do  wide  service  in  bringing 
to  close  sight  the  little  khown  and  the  longed  for.  ...  As  a  philosophy  it  is  elemen- 
tary, but,  as  a  book  of  science,  ordinary  readers  will  find  it  sufficiently  advanced."— 
Utica  Morning  Herald. 

D.  APPLETOX  &  CO.,  Publishers,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Y. 


Opinions  of  the  Press  on  the  "International  Scientific  Series" 

VII. 

The  Conservation  of  Energy. 

By  BALFOUR  STEWART,  LL.  D.,  F.  R.  S. 

With  an  Appendix  treating  of  the  Vital  and  Mental  Applications  of  the  Doctrine. 
I  vol.,  I2mo.     Cloth.     Price,  $1.50. 

"  The  author  has  succeeded  in  presenting  the  facts  in  a  clear  and  satisfactory  manner, 
using  simple  language  and  copious  illustration  in  the  presentation  of  facts  and  prin- 
ciples, confining  himself,  however,  to  the  physical  aspect  of  the  subject.  In  the  Ap- 
pendix the  operation  of  the  principles  in  the  spheres  of  life  and  mind  is  supplied  by 
the  essays  of  Professors  Le  Conte  and  Bain." — Ohio  Farmer. 

"  Prof.  Stewart  is  one  of  the  best  known  teachers  in  Owens  College  in  Manchester. 

"The  volume  of  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SCIENTIFIC  SERIES  now  before  us  is  an  ex- 
cellent illustration  of  the  true  method  of  teaching,  and  will  well  compare  with  Prof. 
Tyndall's  charming  little  book  in  the  same  series  on  '  Forms  of  Water,"  with  illustra- 
tions enough  to  make  clear,  but  not  to  conceal  his  thoughts,  in  a  style  simple  and 
brief." — Christian  Register,  Boston. 

"  The  writer  has  wonderful  ability  to  compress  much  information  into  a  few  words. 
It  is  a  rich  treat  to  read  such  a  book  as  this,  when  there  is  so  much  beauty  and  force 
combined  with  such  simplicity. — Eastern  Press. 


VIII. 

Animal   Locomotion; 

Or,  WALKING,   SWIMMING,  AND   FLYING. 

With  a  Dissertation  on  Aeronautics. 

By  T.  BELL  PETTIGREW,  M.  D.,  F.  R.  S.,  F.  R.  S.  E., 
F.  R.C.  P.E. 

I  vol.,  I2mo Price,  $1.75. 

"  This  work  is  more  than  a  contribution  to  the  stock  of  entertaining  knowledge, 
though,  if  it  only  pleased,  that  would  be  sufficient  excuse  for  its  publication.  But  Dr. 
Pettigrew  has  given  his  time  to  these  investigations  with  the  ultimate  purpose  of  solv- 
ing the  difficult  problem  of  Aeronautics.  To  this  he  devotes  the  last  fifty  pages  of  his 
book.  Dr.  Pettigrew  is  confident  that  man  will  yet  conquer  the  domain  of  the  air." — 
N.  Y.  Journal  of  Commerce. 

"  Most  persons  claim  to  know  how  to  walk,  but  few  could  explain  the  mechanical 
principles  involved  in  this  most  ordinary  transaction,  and  will  be  surprised  that  the 
movements  of  bipeds  and  quadrupeds,  the  darting  and  rushing  motion  of  fish,  and  the 
erratic  flight  of  the  denizens  of  the  air,  are  not  only  anoloeous,  but  can  be  reduced  to 
similar  formula.  The  work  is  profusely  illustrated,  and,  without  reference  to  the  theory 
it  is  designed  to  expound,  will  be  regarded  as  a  valuable  addition  to  natural  history." 
— Omaha  Republic. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Y. 


Opinions  of  the  Press  on  the  "International  Scientific  Series." 

IX. 

Responsibility  in  Mental  Disease. 

By  HENRY   MAUDSLEY,    M.  D., 

Fci!o-.v  of  t'.i2  Royal  College  of  Physicians;  Professor  of  Medical  Jurisprudence 
in  University  College,  London. 

I  vol.,   I2mo.     Cloth.     .     .     Price,  $1.50. 

"  Having  lectured  in  a  medical  college  on  Mental  Disease,  this  book  has  been  a 
feast  to  us.  It  handles  a  great  subject  in  a  masterly  manner,  and,  in  our  judgment,  the 
positions  taken  by  the  author  are  correct  and  well  sustained." — Pastor  and  People. 

"  The  author  is  at  home  in  his  subject,  and  presents  his  views  in  an  almost  singu- 
larly clear  and  satisfactory  manner.  .  .  .  The  volume  is  a  valuable  contribution  to  one 
of  the  most  difficult,  and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  most  important  subjects  of  inves- 
tigation at  the  present  day." — N.  Y.  Observer. 

"  It  is  a  work  profound  and  searching,  and  abounds  in  wisdom." — Pittsburg  Com- 
mercial. 

"  Handles  the  important  topic  with  masterly  power,  and  its  suggestions  are  prac- 
tical and  of  great  valje." — Providence  Press. 

X. 

The  Science  of  Law. 

By  SHELDON  AMOS,  M.  A., 

Professor  of  Jurisprudence  in  University  College,  London;  author  of  "A  Systematic 

View  of  the  Science  of  Jurisprudence,"  "  An  English  Code,  its  Difficulties 

and  the  Modes  of  overcoming  them,"  etc.,  etc. 

I  vol.,  I2mo.     Cloth Price,  $1.75. 

"  The  valuable  series  of  '  International  Scientific '  works,  prepared  by  eminent  spe- 
cialists, with  the  intention  of  popularizing  information  in  their  several  brandies  of 
knowledge,  has  received  a  good  accession  in  this  compact  and  thoughtful  volume.  It 
is  a  difficult  task  to  give  the  outlines  of  a  complete  theory  of  law  in  a  portable  volume, 
which  he  who  runs  may  read,  and  probably  Professor  Amos  himself  would  be  the  last 
to  claim  that  he  has  perfectly  succeeded  in  doing  this.  But  he  has  certainly  done  much 
to  clear  the  science  of  law  from  the  technical  obscurities  which  darken  it  to  minds  which 
have  had  no  legal  training,  and  to  make  clear  to  his  '  lay  '  readers  in  how  true  and  high  a 
sense  it  can  assert  its  right  to  be  considered  a  science,  and  not  a  mere  practice." — Tht 
Christian  Register. 

"The  works  of  Bentham  and  Austin  are  abstruse  and  philosophical,  and  Maine's 
require  hard  study  and  a  certain  amount  of  special  training.  The  writers  also  pursue 
different  lines  of  investigation,  and  can  only  be  regarded  as  comprehensive  in  the  de- 
partments they  confined  themselves  to.  It  was  left  to  Amos  to  gather  up  the  result 
and  present  the  science  in  its  fullness.  The  unquestionable  merits  of  this,  his  last  book, 
are,  that  it  contains  a  complete  treatment  of  a  subject  which  has  hitherto  been  handled 
by  specialists,  and  it  opens  up  that  subject  to  every  inquiring  mind.  .  .  .  To  do  justice 
to  '  The  Science  of  Law '  would  require  a  longer  review  than  we  have  space  for.  We 
have  read  no  more  interesting  and  instructive  book  for  some  time.  Its  themes  concern 
everyone  who  renders  obedience  to  laws,  and  who  would  have  those  laws  the  best 
possible.  The  tide  of  legal  reform  which  set  in  fifty  years  ago  has  to  swrep  yet 
if  the  flaws  in  our  jurisprudence  are  to  be  removed.  The  process  of  change  cannot  be 
better  guided  than  by  a  well-informed  public  mind,  and  Prof.  Amos  has  done  great 
service  in  materially  helping  to  promote  this  end." — Buffalo  Courier. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS,  549  &  551  Bror.dvay,  N.  Y. 


Opinions  of  the  Press  on  the  "International  Scientific  Series." 


XI. 

Animal  Mechanism, 

A  Treatise  on  Terrestrial  and  Aerial  Locomotion. 

By  E.  J.  MAREY, 

Professor  at  the  College  of  France,  and   Member  of  the  Academy  of  Medicine. 

With  117  Illustrations,  drawn  and  engraved  under  the  direction  of  the  author. 

i  vol.,  izmo.     Cloth Price,  $1.75 

"  We  hope  that,  in  the  short  glance  which  we  have  taken  of  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant points  discussed  in  the  work  before  us,  we  have  succeeded  in  interesting  our 
readers  sufficiently  in  its  contents  to  make  them  curious  to  learn  more  of  its  subject- 
matter.  We  cordially  recommend  it  to  their  attention. 

"  The  author  of  the  present  work,  it  is  well  known,  stands  at  the  head  of  those 
physiologists  who  have  investigated  the  mechanism  of  animal  dynamics — indeed,  we 
may  almost  say  that  he  has  made  the  subject  his  own.  By  the  originality  of  his  con- 
ceptions, the  ingenuity  of  his  constructions,  the  skill  of  his  analysis,  and  the  persever- 
ance of  his  investigations,  he  has  surpassed  all  others  in  the  power  of  unveiling  the 
complex  and  intricate  movements  of  animated  beings." — Popular  Science  Monthly. 


XII. 

History   of  the   Conflict    between 
Religion  and   Science. 

By  JOHN  WILLIAM  DRAPER,  M.  D.,  LL.  D., 

Author  of  "  The  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe." 
i  vol.,  i2ino. Price,  $1.75. 

"This  little  '  History'  would  have  been  a  valuable  contribution  to  literature  at  any 
<ime,  and  is,  in  fact,  an  admirable  text-book  upon  a  subject  that  is  at  present  engross- 
ing the  attention  of  a  large  number  of  the  most  serious-minded  people,  and  it  is  no 
small  compliment  to  the  sagacity  of  its  distinguished  author  that  he  has  so  well  gauged 
the  requirements  of  the  times,  and  so  adequately  met  them  by  the  preparation  of  this 
volume.  It  remains  to  be  added  that,  while  the  writer  has  flinched  from  no  responsi- 
bility in  his  statements,  and  has  written  with  entire  fidelity  to  the  demands  of  truth 
and  justice,  there  is  not  a  word  in  his  book  that  can  give  offense  to  candid  and  fair- 
minded  readers." — N.  Y.  Evening  Post. 

"  The  key-note  to  this  volume  is  found  in  the  antagonism  between  the  progressive 
tendencies  of  the  human  mind  and  the  pretensions  of  ecclesiastical  authority,  as  devel- 
oped in  the  history  of  modern  science.  No  previous  writer  has  treated  the  subject 
from  this  point  of  view,  and  the  present  monograph  will  be  found  to  possess  no  less 
originality  of  conception  than  vigor  of  reasoning  and  wealth  of  erudition.  .  .  .  The 
method  of  Dr.  Draper,  in  his  treatment  of  the  various  questions  that  come  up  for  dis- 
cussion, is  marked  by  singular  impartiality  as  well  as  consummate  ability.  Through- 
out his  work  he  maintains  the  position  of  an  historian,  not  of  an  advocate.  His  tone  is 
tranquil  and  serene,  as  becomes  the  search  after  truth,  with  no  trace  of  the  impassioned 
ardor  of  controversy.  He  endeavors  so  far  to  identify  himself  with  the  contending 
parties  as  to  gain  a  clear  comprehension  of  their  motives,  but,  at  the  same  time,  he 
submits  their  actions  to  the  tests  of  a  cool  and  impartial  examination." — N.  Y.  Tribune. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Y. 


"An  Interesting,  a  Truthful,  and  a  Wholesome  Book" 

LONDON  ATHENAEUM. 


WILKES,  SHERIDAN,  FOX. 

THE  APPOSITION  UNDER   GEORGE  THE  THIRD. 

By  W.   F.    RAE. 
8vo.     Cloth Price,  $2.00. 

"  A  book  which  embraces  vigorous  sketches  of  three  famous  men 
like  John  Wilkes,  Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan,  and  Charles  James  Fox, 
is  truly  worth  having.  The  author  is  in  evident  sympathy  with  all  three 
of  his  subjects,  and  yet  does  not  in  either  case  betray  an  undue  partial- 
ity. Although  in  no  instance  condoning  the  private  vices  and  personal 
shortcomings  of  the  characters  he  has  to  deal  with,  he  does  not  allow 
their  faults  to  influence  his  estimate  of  the  virtues,  the  talents,  and  the 
public  services,  which  entitle  each  of  these  celebrated  men  to  the  admi- 
ration and  gratitude  of  their  country." — Chicago  Tribune. 

"  The  volume  is  interesting  to  Americans  particularly,  as  it  speaks 
of  men  who  represented  largely  English  sentiments  during  our  struggle 
for  independence ;  and  the  opposition  of  Fox  to  war  in  this  country,  as 
represented  in  these  pages,  shows  out  clearly  the  love  of  liberty  which 
filled  the  minds  of  this  man  and  his  worthy  colleagues  Wilkes  and  Sheri- 
dan at  that  time." — Albany  Express. 

"  All  who  relish  a  fine  portrayal  of  good  sayings,  courageous  acts, 
and  laudable  endeavor,  will  want  to  see  this  work." — Boston  Common- 
wealth. 

"  The  reading  public  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  Mr.  Rae  for  reviv- 
ing the  acts  and  deeds  of  this  triple  combination  of  political  giants." — 
Philadelphia  Age. 

"The  work  bears  the  marks  of  care,  and  reflects  credit  upon  Mr. 
Rae  in  giving  new  attraction  to  old  subjects  so  desirable  to  students  of 
biographical  history." — Pittsburg  Commercial. 

"  We  not  only  agree  with  Mr.  Rae's  conclusions,  but  we  are  grate- 
ful to  him  for  an  interesting,  a  truthful,  and  a  wholesome  book." — 
London  Athenccum. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

549  &  55 '  BROADWAY,  N.  Y. 


"A  rich  list  of  fruitful  topics." 

.   BOSTON  COMMONWEALTH. 


By   the   REV.    CHARLES   KINGSLEY,    F.   L.   S.,    F.   G.    S., 
CANON  OF  WESTMINSTER. 

I2mo.     Cloth Price,  $1.75. 

"It  is  mast  refreshing  to  meet  an  earnest  soul,  and  such,  preeminently,  is  Charles 
Kingsley,  and  he  has  shown  himself  such  in  every  thing  he  has  written,  from  '  Alton 
Locke '  and  '  Village  Sermons,'  a  quarter  of  a  century  since,  to  the  present  volume,  which 
is  no  exception.  Here  are  fifteen  Essays  and  Lectures,  excellent  and  interesting  in 
different  degrees,  but  all  exhibiting  the  author's  peculiar  characteristics  of  thought 
and  style,  and  some  of  them  blending  most  valuable  instruction  with  entertainment, 
as  few  living  writers  can." — Hartford  Post. 

"That  the  title  of  this  book  is  not  expressive  of  its  actual  contents,  is  made  mani- 
fest by  a  mere  glance  at  its  pages;  it  is,  in  fact,  a  collection  of  Essays  and  Lectures, 
written  and  delivered  upon  various  occasions  by  its  distinguished  author;  as  such  it 
cannot  be  otherwise  than  readable,  and  no  intelligent  mind  needs  to  be  assured  that 
Charles  Kingsley  is  fascinating,  whether  he  treats  of  Gothic  Architecture,  Natural 
History,  or  the  Education  of  Women.  The  lecture  on  Thrift,  which  was  intended  for 
the  women  of  England,  may  be  read  with  profit  and  pleasure  by  the  women  of 
everywhere." — St.  Louis  Democrat. 

"  The  book  contains  exactly  what  every  one  needs  to  know,  and  in  a  form  which 
every  one  can  understand." — Boston  Journal. 

"  This  volume  no  doubt  contains  his  best  thoughts  on  all  the  most  important  topics 
of  the  day. " — Detroit  Post. 

"  Nothing  could  be  better  or  more  entertaining  for  the  family  library." — Zion's 
Herald. 

"  For  the  style  alone,  and  for  the  vivid  pictures  frequently  presented,  this  latest 
production  of  Mr.  Kingsley  commends  itself  to  readers.  The  topics  treated  are 
mostly  practical,  but  the  manner  is  always  the  manner  of  a  master  in  composition. 
Whether  discussing  the  abstract  science  of  health,  the  subject  of  ventilation,  the 
education  of  the  different  classes  that  form  English  society,  natural  history,  geology, 
heroic  aspiration,  superstitious  fears,  or  personal  communication  with  Nature,  we 
find  the  same  freshness  of  treatment,  and  the  same  eloquence  and  affluence  of  language 
that  distinguish  the  productions  in  other  fields  of  this  gifted  author." — Boston  Gazette. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

549  &  551  BROADWAY,  N.  Y. 


A  thoughtful  and  valuable  contribution  to  the  best  religious  literature 
of  the  day. 

RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE. 


A  Series  of  Sunday  Lectures  on  the  Relation  of  Natural  and  Revealed 
Religion,  or  the  Truths  revealed  in  Nature  and  Scripture. 

By  JOSEPH    LE    CONTE, 

PROFESSOR   OF   GEOLOGY   AND  NATURAL   1IISTOBY   IN   THE   UNIVERSITY   OF  CALIFORNIA. 

\2rno,  cloth.     Price,  $1.50. 

OPINIONS    OF   THE  PRESS. 

"  This  work  is  chiefly  remarkable  as  a  conscientious  effort  to  reconcile 
the  revelations  of  Science  with  those  of  Scripture,  and  will  be  very  use- 
ful to  teachers  of  the  different  Sunday-schools." — Detroit  Union. 

"It  will  be  seen,  by  this  resume  of  the  topics,  that  Prof.  Le  Conte 
grapples  with  some  of  the  gravest  questions  which  agitate  the  thinking 
world.  He  treats  of  them  all  with  dignity  and  fairness,  and  in  a  man- 
ner so  clear,  persuasive,  and  eloquent,  as  to  engage  the  undivided  at- 
tention of  the  reader.  We  commend  the  book  cordially  to  the  regard 
of  all  who  are  interested  in  whatever  pertains  to  the  discussion  of  these 
grave  questions,  and  especially  to  those  who  desire  to  examine  closely 
the  strong  foundations  on  which  the  Christian  faith  is  reared." — Boston 
Journal. 

"A  reverent  student  of  Nature  and  religion  is  the  best-qualified  man 
to  instruct  others  in  their  harmony.  The  author  at  first  inttnded  his 
work  for  a  Bible-class,  but,  as  it  grew  under  his  hands,  it  seemed  veil  to 
give  it  form  in  a  neat  volume.  The  lectures  are  from  a  decidedly  re- 
ligious stand-point,  and  as  such  present  a  new  method  of  treatment." 
— Philadelphia  Age. 

"  This  volume  is  made  up  of  lectures  delivered  to  his  pupils,  and  is 
written  with  much  clearness  of  thought  and  unusual  clearness  of  ex- 
pression, although  the  author's  Knglish  is  not  always  above  reproach. 
It  is  partly  a  treatise  on  natural  theology  and  partly  a  defense  of  the 
Bible  against  the  assaults  of  modern  science.  In  the  latter  aspect  the 
author's  method  is  an  eminently  wise  one.  He  accepts  whatever  sci- 
ence has  proved,  and  he  also  accepts  the  divine  origin  of  the  1  il  K-. 
Where  the  two  seem  to  conflict  he  prefers  to  await  the  reconciling  n, 
which  is  inevitable  if  both  are  true,  rather  than  to  waste  time  and  words 
in  inventing  ingenious  and  doubtful  theories  to  force  them  into  seeming 
accord.  Both  a>  a  theologian  and  a  man  of  science,  Prof.  Le  Conte's 
opinions  are  entitled  to  respectful  attention,  and  there  are  fe\v  \\h<>  \\ill 
not  recognize  his  book  as  a  thoughtful  and  valuable  contribution  to  the 
best  religious  literature  of  the  day." — New  York  World. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Y. 


DESCRIPTIVE    SOCIOLOGY. 


MB.  HERBERT  SPENCER  has  been  for  several  years  engaged,  with  the  aid  of 
Ihree  educated  gentlemen  in  his  employ,  in  collecting  and  organizing  the  facts 
concerning  all  orders  of  human  societies,  which  must  constitute  the  data  of  a  true 
Social  Science.  He  tabulates  these  facts  so  as  conveniently  to  admit  of  ex- 
tensive comparison,  and  gives  the  authorities  separately.  He  divides  the  races 
of  mankind  into  three  great  groups  :  the  savage  races,  the  existing  civilizations, 
and  the  extinct  civilizations,  and  to  each  he  devotes  a  series  of  works.  The 
first  installment, 

THE  SOCIOLOGICAL  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND, 

in  seven  continuous  tables,  folio,  with  seventy  pages  of  verifying  text,  is  now 
ready.  This  work  will  be  a  perfect  Cyclopaedia  of  the  facts  of  Social  Science, 
independent  of  all  theories,  and  will  be  invaluable  to  all  interested  in  social 
problems.  Price,  five  dollars.  This  great  work  is  spoken  of  as  follows : 

From  the  British  Quarterly  Review. 

"No  words  are  needed  to  indicate  the  immense  labor  here  bestowed,  or  the  gi eat 
sociological  benefit  which  such  a  mass  of  tabulated  matter  done  under  such  competent 
direction  will  coufer.  The  work  will  constitute  an  epoch  in  the  science  of  comparative 
sociology." 

From  the  Saturday  Eeview. 

"The  plan  of  the  'Descriptive  Sociology 'is  new,  and  the  task  is  one  eminently  fitted 
to  te  dealt  with  by  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  faculty  of  scientific  organizing.  His  object  is 
to  examine  the  natural  laws  which  govern  the  development  of  societies,  as  he  has  ex- 
amined in  formei  parts  of  his  system  those  which  govern  the  development  of  individual 
life.  Now,  it  is  obvious  that  the  development  of  societies  can  be  studied  ors'y  in  their 
history,  and  that  general  conclusions  which  shall  hold  good  beyond  the  limits  of  particu- 
lar societies  cannot  be  safely  drawn  except  from  a  very  wide  range  of  facts.  Mr.  Spen- 
cer has  therefore  conceived  the  plan  of  making  a  preliminary  collection,  or  perhaps  we 
should  rather  say  abstract,  of  materials  which  when  complete  will  be  a  classified  epi- 
tome of  unive.  sal  history." 

From  the  London  Examiner. 

"Of  the  treatment,  in  the  main,  we  cannot  speak  too  highly;  and  we  must  accept 
lias  a  wonderfully  successful  first  attempt  to  furnish  the  student  of  social  scte'.irs  with 
data  standing  toward  his  conclusions  in  a  relation  like  that  in  which  acconn*«  r^'  tha 
itructnres  and  functions  of  different  types  of  animals  stand  to  the  conclusion?  of  Uw 
biologist." 


APPLETONS'  JOURNAL  FOR  1875. 

APPLE-TONS1  JOURNAL  will  sustain,  during  the  ensuing  year,  its  reputation  for  gen- 
cral  excellence.  The  publishers  will  endeavor,  more  strenuous-ly  than  ever,  to  furnish 
a  periodical  of  a  high  class,  one  which  shall  embrace  a  wide  scope  of  topics,  and  afford 
the  reader,  in  addition  to  an  abundance  of  entertaining  popular  literal  lire,  a  thorough 
survey  of  the  prom-ess  of  thought  the  advance  of  the  arts,  and  the  doings  in  all  branches 
ofintellectual  effort.  As  the  design  is  to  make  a  superior  literary  journal,  engraving 
will  be  employed  only  when  they  serve  to  illustrate  the  text,  and  never  merely  as 
pictures. 

Without  adhering  too  rigidly  to  any  set  plan,  the  contents  will  be  grouped  approxi- 
mately as  follows : 

I.  LITERATI- RE  or  ROMANCE,  consisting  of  popular  serial  novels,  from  both  Ameri- 
can and  Knglish  writers,  and  the  best  short  stories  obtainable,  whether  from 
native  or  foreign  writers. 

II.  TBAVKL,  ADVENTURE.  AND  DISCOVERT,  embracing  papers  descriptive  of  places, 
tales  of  adventure  and  discovery,  with  notes  of  all  that  is  doing  in  the  way  of 
exploration,  or  that  is  brought  to  light  of  new  and  unfamiliar  countries. 

III.  NATCRK  AND  NATORAL  HISTORT,  under  which  will  be  given  entertaining  papers 

on  the  characteristics  of  the  earth's  surface,  the  habits  of  animals,  and  all 
that  pertains  to  the  physical  world  around  us. 

IV.  SOCIAL  THEMES,  including  papers  expressing  the  ideas  of  capable  observers  on 

social  progress,  the  arts  and  felicities  of  the  household,  and  such  matters  as 
pertain  to  our  daily  lives. 

V.  TUB  ARTS,  embracing  criticisms  of  new  paintings,  new  architecture,  etc.;  ob- 
servations on  decorative  and  household  art,  and  a  general  survey  of  the  prog- 
ress of  the  arts  in  all  their  branches. 

VI.     MISCELLANY  will  cover  selections  from  new  books,  brief  translations  from  Con- 
tinental journals,  and  extracts  giving  the  core  of  the  more  noteworthy  papers 
in  the  English  magazines. 
VII.    SCIENCE  AND  INVENTION  will  consist  of  popular  papers  on  subjects  covered  by 

these  terms,  and  will  record  the  progress  made  therein. 

VIII.  NEW  BOOKS  will  be  carefully  and  impartially  reviewed,  in  the  sole  interest  of 
the  reader;  and  notes  will  be  subjoined,  affording  intelligence  in  regard  to 
literary  matters  here  and  abroad. 

IX.    CURRENT  TOPICS  will  consist  of  the  editor's  glances  at  themes  occupying  the 
public  mind ;  at  various  utterances  by  leading  spirits  in  literature,  philosophy. 
and  criticism ;  and  at  the  gayeties  and  amusements  of  society.    It  is  de- 
signed to  make  this  department  notable  for  its  entertaining  vivacity. 
The  broad  purpose  of  the  editors  will  be  to  make  a  magazine  ofwtildy  M«/«,  that 
shall  rival  in  interest  and  variety  the  regular  monthly  publications;  and  for  this  purpose 
the  space  at  their  command  enables  them  to  give  much  more  material  for  the  same 
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A  New  Magazine  for  Students  and  Cultivated  Readers. 


THE 


POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY, 


CONDUCTED    BY 
Professor-  E.   L.   VOUMANS. 


THE  growing  importance  of  scientific  knowledge  to  all  classes  of  the 
community  calls  for  more  efficient  means  of  diffusing  it.  THE  POPULAR 
SCIENCE  MONTHLY  has  been  started  to  promote  this  object,  and  supplies  a 
want  met  by  no  other  periodical  in  the  United  States. 

It  contains  instructive  and  attractive  articles,  and  abstracts  of  articles, 
original,  selected,  and  illustrated,  from  the  leading  scientific  men  of  differ- 
ent countries,  giving  the  latest  interpretations  of  natural  phenomena,  ex- 
plaining the  applications  of  science  to  the  practical  arts,  and  to  the  opera- 
tions of  domestic  life. 

It  is  designed  to  give  especial  prominence  to  those  branches  of  science 
which  help  to  a  better  understanding  of  the  nature  of  man  ;  to  present  the 
claims  of  scientific  education  ;  and  the  bearings  of  science  upon  questions 
of  society  and  government.  How  the  various  subjects  of  current  opinion 
are  affected  by  the  advance  of  scientific  inquiry  will  also  be  considered. 

In  its  literary  character,  this  periodical  aims  to  be  popular,  without  be- 
ing superficial,  and  appeals  to  the  intelligent  reading-classes  of  the  commu- 
nity. It  seeks  to  procure  authentic  statements  from  men  who  know  their 
subjects,  and  who  will  address  the  non-scientific  public  for  purposes  of  ex- 
position and  explanation. 

It  will  have  contributions  from  HERBERT  SPENCER,  Professor  HUXLEY, 
Professor  TYNDALL,  Mr.  DARWIN,  and  other  writers  identified  with  specu- 
lative thought  and  scientific  investigation. 

THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY  is  published  in  a  large 
octavo,  handsomely  printed  on  clear  type.  Terms,  Five  Dollars  per  annum, 
or  fifty  Cents  per  copy. 

OPINIONS   OF  THE    PRESS. 

"Just  the  publication  needed  at  the  present  day." — Montreal  Gazette. 

"  It  is,  beyond  comparison,  the  best  attempt  at  journalism  of  the  kind  ever  made  in  this 
country." — Home  Journal. 

"  The  initial  number  is  admirably  constituted." — Evening  Mail. 

"  In  our  opinion,  the  right  idea  has  been  happily  hit  in  the  plan  of  this  new  monthly." 
—Buffalo  Courier. 

"  A  journal  which  promises  to  be  of  eminent  value  to  the  cause  of  popular  education  in 
this  country." — A7.  Y.  Tribune. 

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